Donnie Freeman and Syracuse men’s basketball fight off a late surge from Georgia Tech for their first ACC win of the season

After starting conference play with a loss, Syracuse men’s basketball (10-5, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) found a way to fend off Georgia Tech (10-6, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) 82-72 for its first ACC win of the season. But, while the final score shows a double-digit win, the result of the Orange’s first true road game of the season was up in the air after the Yellow Jackets flew back into the game in the second half.

With the ‘Cuse up by 8 midway through the first half, it found a rhythm and stormed into the locker room on a 14-6 run to close out the first half with a lead of 44-30. The 44 points that the Orange scored in the first 20 minutes were the most in a first half of a game this season. Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry recognized how well the offense moved the ball.

“I thought in the first half we moved, we got open, and we got the ball to where we needed to get it to,” Autry said.

The lead would balloon to as much as 20 early out of the break. But, after SU guard Nait George connected on a pair from the charity stripe that made it 67-49 at the 11:01 mark in the second half, the Yellow Jackets got hot and surged right back into the game.

Georgia Tech went on a 20-7 run over the next eight minutes or so and made the game 72-67 with just over three minutes to play. During this stretch, Syracuse committed seven turnovers and only made one field goal out of five attempts. Coach Red felt that the offense became stagnant during the approximately eight-minute struggle.

“I thought that we had some careless ones [turnovers],” Autry said. “I thought that we didn’t move to get open, they started to ramp up the pressure, and it really disrupted our timing.”

Despite this, SU got some key stops, made big free throws, and Orange forward William Kyle’s first block of the night sealed the win for Syracuse.

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Now, a big reason why the Orange came out victorious down in Atlanta was due to the play of forward Donnie Freeman. The sophomore notched a career-high 27 points, ripped down nine rebounds, and swatted a career-high three shots. Plus, the six-foot-nine forward scored six of SU’s final 11 points in the last three minutes.

But for Freeman, he cherishes the opportunity to be back after missing nine straight games earlier this season.

“Points, rebounds, and wins aside, the feeling of doing what I love with the people I love is an indescribable feeling,” Freeman said.

Outside of the sophomore forward, SU got a major lift from point guard Nait George.

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After playing with Georgia Tech for two seasons, the junior made his return to McCamish Pavilion and didn’t disappoint. George finished with 17 points and 5 assists. Plus, the guard made all ten of his free throw attempts.

With Tuesday’s game against the Yellow Jackets now in the rear-view mirror, Syracuse now turns its attention to Pitt Saturday at 2:00. WAER’s coverage of SU starts with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Tipoff at 1:30 pm, live on 88.3 FM and waer.org.