With just seven-seconds left and Syracuse up by one point, Notre Dame guard Dane Goodwin pulled up for a corner jump shot. Luckily for the Orange, it hit the rim and missed; SU came away with a 62-61 win. This marks Syracuse’s first win in four contests, and a strong start to the ACC season.
The close one-point score was the story of the entire game. There were 12 ties throughout the 40 minutes of play.
At the half, the two squads were all squared up, 35-35. Senior Jesse Edwards tallied 16 points, looking strong in the paint. The Dutchman ended the half 7-9 from the floor and recorded six rebounds.
LISTEN: The Flying Dutchman strikes again! SU Center Jesse Edwards threw down a slam dunk off of his own rebound. @JacobMorrisTV was on the call. pic.twitter.com/JBttFXDQQS
— WAER Sports (@WAERSports) December 3, 2022
On the other side of the court, Goodwin led his team with 13 points in the first half. ND hit nearly 44 percent of shots both inside and outside the arc. SU knocked down just 30 percent of its threes, but made 50 percent of its attempts from the floor.
Moving to the second half, Syracuse’s success from the three pointer range didn’t get much better. It ended the game making just three out of 18 total tries from distance. The Orange haven’t secured more than 30 percent of their three point opportunities since the 74-71 victory over Richmond in Brooklyn. Before that, Syracuse averaged nearly 41 percent.
Despite the lack of strong deep shooting performance from SU, its defense tightened up in the second half. Notre Dame dropped its three point percentage from 44 percent in the first frame to just 33 percent.
“We did a better job of covering the corners," head coach Jim Boeheim said. "First half we didn’t cover the corners.”
Edwards’ strong night didn’t stop in the first half. He ended up matching his career high of 22 points, matching a mark from a 88-87 loss to Miami last January.
Sticking with the veterans, Joe Girard III exemplified resilience after some recent underwhelming performances. The senior scored four points against Bryant, and did not score against Illinois. Today, he got his mojo back, and recorded 20 points for Syracuse.
“We needed Joe to bounce back and that was the difference in the game,” Boeheim said. “He was aggressive.”
On the freshman front, the performance wasn’t quite as memorable. Rookie Judah Mintz tallied just nine points for the day. Before the Bryant game, the Maryland native hit more than 15 points each game. Mintz hasn’t made it to double digits in the last three matchups.
What was memorable from the guard was his big play with just 13-seconds left in the game. The Orange were down by one point until Mintz made a clean jumper to steal the lead, the 12th lead change of the contest.
Syracuse has another out-of-conference foe coming up. Oakland travels to the Dome for a Tuesday night tip. Following Oakland are three more out-of-conference teams before getting into the swing of ACC action.
Tipoff between the Orange and the Golden Grizzlies is 6:00. WAER’s coverage of the contest begins at 5:30 with McClurg Team Countdown to Tipoff.