Orange hit with another loss in Brooklyn to drop below .500

The Orange fell under the .500 mark after they lost their third game of the year at the Barclays Center. A poor first half allowed Maryland to jump out to an early lead and cruise to an 87-60 win

“We didn’t show up today,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said.

Junior J.J. Starling’s absence loomed over an Orange team that looked frostbitten offensively. The Orange shot 8-29 in the first half that was capped off by a 17-2 run by the Terrapins. The offense stagnated, unable to break through on a Maryland team that allows just 60.7 points per game.

Photo by Chelsea Reeves

Donnie Freeman makes free throw shot at the Syracuse University vs. Maryland MBB game.

SU didn’t find the free throw line until freshman Donnie Freeman sank two with just over five minutes remaining in the game.

Syracuse finished the game shooting 43% after going 17-29 in the second half where they climbed out from a deficit of nearly 40 points.

Freshman Elijah Moore led the team with 16 points, followed by Freeman’s 15. The game followed a similar trend all season, and especially since Starling’s departure, with freshmen players leading the team offensively.

“We lost our best player and one of the best guards in the country,” Autry said in response to what has gone wrong since the last time they visited the Barclays Center.

When Syracuse last played in Brooklyn, Starling helped the team nearly come back against Texas and Texas Tech in late November.

Nobody is feeling the absence of Starling quite like guard Jaquan Carlos. The Brooklyn native played 36-plus minutes in the last five games.

“This is a lesson. If we don’t come out and fight from the jump we’re gonna dig ourselves into a deep hole,” Carlos said. “We all know that this is not this team.”

Photo by Chelsea Reeves

Jaquan Carlos pushes forward towards the hoop with the ball past Maryland defender Rodney Rice.

Syracuse fumbled a season high 21 turnovers, plenty of which came from Orange mistakes, which effectively sums up just how this game went. SU had six turnovers in the first five minutes.

“At the end of the day we got our butts kicked,” Autry said. “It was embarrassing, very disappointing. The one thing that we’ve done all year, even though we’ve come up short, we’ve completed. Today that wasn’t the case.”

UM also dominated on the offensive side of the ball in just about every major metric. They shot 22-45 from the field, and shot even better from three at 10-22.  A huge contributor from deep was Maryland guard Selton Miguel, who was honored with the Gotham Classic’s Most Outstanding Player.

Miguel was a flamethrower from beyond the arc, shooting 6-9 from deep, notching 24 points to lead the Terrapins in scoring. 

Photo by Chelsea Reeves

Center Eddie Lampkin follows Selton Miguel down the court as Maryland takes possession of the ball.

Maryland put together a dominant basketball game, displayed in Brooklyn with four players netting double digit points, 26 assists around the team, and a collective 15 steals. UM sits fourth in the Big 10 after preseason polls projecting the team toward the bottom of the conference at the beginning of the year. They’re exceeding expectations and look on-track for a tournament appearance. 

For the Orange, they fall to 5-6 on the season, possessing a losing record at Christmas for the first time since 1968 as they move closer to the daunting task of ACC play. Syracuse hopes to return to the win column Dec. 28 versus Bucknell.