Wednesday night in South Bend, Indiana the Syracuse Orange (12-7) edged Notre Dame (11-7) to extend their winning streak to four games.
Suddenly after an 84-82 win the Orange are right in the thick of things in the ACC after taking advantage of what seems to be a down year for the conference and maybe the entire college hoops landscape.
Regardless, Syracuse overcame an 11 point deficit in the first half and withstood another Irish push late in regulation. It was the same type of game the Orange had fumbled away multiple times this season, but tonight, like the last three games, Syracuse discovered a winning formula.
Coach Boeheim said after the game, “we had some mismatches we were able to take their best offensive players, a couple of them struggle on defense. We were able to take advantage of that.”
With just under six minutes remaining in the game, the Irish capped off a 9-0 run when John Mooney found Dane Goodwin for an easy layup.
The 69-68 Notre Dame lead did not last long as the Orange responded by taking the air out of the ball with efficient defense and offense. Syracuse went on an 8-0 run of their own and by that time Notre Dame had just 43 seconds to work with.
Elijah Hughes dropped a game-high 26 points, 12 of which came from beyond the arc. Joe Girard II was behind him with 15 points along with 9 rebounds and Bourama Sidibe was an impressive 6-6 from the field tallying 12 points on the night.
After the game coach Boeheim had high praise for Notre Dame’s John Mooney who had 21 points and 13 boards.
“I don’t get involved too much and stuff, but if John Mooney is not one of the top 25 players in the country then I don’t know anything about college basketball.”
Syracuse will be back in the Dome to take on Pitt Saturday at 12:00.