On Wednesday night, Syracuse (10-11,4-6 ACC) matches up against NC State (10-12, 3-8 ACC) for the first and only time this season. Luckily for the Orange, they’re coming off arguably their best performance of the year with the second half fully in-swing.
SU dominated Wake Forest in the Dome on Saturday, winning 94-72 in front of the largest crowd in college basketball this season. Everything was clicking for the Orange. Buddy Boeheim scored a season-high 30 points on 12-21 shooting, including 6-11 from downtown. ‘Cuse finished with its most points scored since November, and shot over 50% from the field and from three. The defense also forced 17 Wake turnovers, prompting head coach Jim Boeheim to call it the team’s most complete game thus far.
“It was just a really good offensive and defensive performance,” said Coach Boeheim, “we haven’t been able to put that together this year. It was a good thing to see.”
Syracuse now has a chance to win back to back games, something it hasn’t done in over a month, on Wednesday against NC State. The Wolfpack are one of the only teams in the ACC with a worse record than the Orange, and have lost their last two contests.
Similar to Syracuse, NC State is headlined by a tall, dynamic guard. Sophomore Dereon Seabron leads the Wolfpack in points per game with 18.3, assists per game with 3.4, and rebounds per game with nine. Seabron is a constant double-double threat, having totaled ten of them this year. Interestingly, the guard actually had his worst game of the season last time out, scoring just two points in 23 minutes in a loss to UNC. That’s the first and only time he’s failed to reach double digit scoring.
For Syracuse, the game plan has to be the same as it was against Wake Forest. Take care of the ball, find open shots, and play good defense. Sounds simple, sure, but if the Orange want to make any noise in March, they need to start digging themselves out of this hole they’re in starting now. And it sounds like the team’s leading scorer hasn’t made any spring break plans yet.
“We’ve been encouraging each other, we’ve been lifting each other up, and we’re never going to quit.” senior Buddy Boeheim said, “I believe in every one of these guys, and we love each other too much to quit now and not keep going and see what we can do.”
Tipoff between Syracuse and NC State is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Wednesday night. Make sure to tune into WAER’s coverage of the game starting at 8:30 p.m. with GZA Countdown to Tipoff.