Syracuse rallies to defeat Georgia Tech 79-72

Syracuse beat Georgia Tech 79-72 on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier dome with a second-half surge of offense and defense.

“I thought we made a lot of mistakes in the first half,” said SU head coach Jim Boeheim.  “We had a lot of bad turnovers and we didn’t come out on the three-point shooters twice.

And, in addition to that, the team looked sluggish. Marek Dolezaj had three fouls and Quincy Guerrier had four fouls. Georgia Tech’s Moses Wright had 17 points and the Orange trailed by eleven by the end of the first half.

But the second half was all Syracuse. They went on a 7-0 run to start the second 20 minutes and kept the momentum from there.

“In the second half, we went with the five guys who played the best and most consistent defense,” Boeheim said. “Having those guys at the end gave us a chance to win the game.”

The defense also seemed to spark the offense.

“We shot 64 percent in the second half,” Boeheim said. “We had better movement and took better shots. All five of our guys were tremendous.”

With 10:29 to go in the second half, Dolezaj made a jumper, the Yellow Jackets turned it over and Hughes sank a floater to tie the game. Just about a minute later, Hughes made a free throw to give the Orange the lead that they kept throughout the rest of the game.

It was an overall team effort for the Orange. Dolezaj finished with 20. Girard had 15. Hughes had 20. Boeheim had 13.

Syracuse improves to 8-8 in conference play and 15-12 overall and will go on the road to face Pittsburgh next on Wednesday.