Syracuse falls in national rankings after a 76-62 win over Mercyhurst.

Syracuse men’s basketball (7-4, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) is back in the win column after a trudging 76-62 victory over Mercyhurst (4-8, 1-0 Northeast Conference). They say a win is a win; this one might prove otherwise.

The Orange and the Lakers were slated as the 74th and 331st best teams in the country respectively according to Kenpom. The 14-point win dropped SU six spots in the national rankings. Parlay that with a loss to Hofstra on Saturday (December 13th), and Syracuse’s road to the dance gets even harder with conference play right around the corner.

But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves now. In SU’s 14-point win, the biggest contributor was the free throws; and not in the way you’re probably thinking. The Orange shot a season-best 75% from the stripe, 12-for-16. Before the game, Syracuse missed out on nearly ten points from the line per game.

“The one place that we have had some struggles with has been the free throw line. That’s improving…” said Autry. “We left some points out there because of our free throw shooting. If we didn’t leave some points out there, do you know what we’d be doing? We’d be averaging almost 80 points.”

Though the percentage was above average against Mercyhurst, the attempts were few and far between. 16 free throw attempts is tied for SU’s second fewest in a game this season. If there was an opponent to drive that counter up, it would have been Mercyhurst. The tallest Laker to touch the Dome court was 6’6”. SU had the tools to out-physical its opponent in UCLA transfer, William Kyle.

Cuse.com

Kyle stands 6’9”. With that minimum three-inch height advantage, Kyle worked to just two free throws. The big man has exceeded five free throw attempts in five of the last six games. Though Kyle’s performance from the stripe has been an eyesore this year (49%), his absence from the line against a smaller Mercyhurst team was of note.

The 6’9” center finished with 15 points and ten rebounds, his fifth double-double this year.

“He is key to how we try to be aggressive and get after people,” Autry said. “He’s someone that we haven’t seen in a while…He does everything.”

SU guard JJ Starling joined Kyle in double figures with 15 points. Seems like something to celebrate over…not necessarily:

Starling got off on a tear scoring 10 of SU’s first 17 points. Then, Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry checked Starling out for guard Naithan George. When Starling re-entered the game with two minutes to go in the half, his groove had passed. The guard scored just five points following the substitution. This isn’t a one-off instance. A very similar sequence happened in SU’s 70-69 loss to Hofstra.

In that game, Starling got off to an even hotter start; he notched 12 of SU’s opening 15 points. Less than a minute after that 12th point, Coach Autry pulled the guard. From when Starling checked back in, he went 1-for-8 from the field.

When questions about the offense arose post game, head coach Adrian Autry stood his ground. “There is nothing wrong with our offense,” Autry said.

SU has two more out-of-conference opportunities to smooth things out before conference play begins on December 31st. The first of those opportunities being Northeastern on Saturday at 4. WAER’s coverage begins with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Tipoff at 3:30, right here on waer.org or on 88.3 FM.