Syracuse men’s basketball pulls off late win defeating SMU 79-78

Syracuse men’s basketball (15-11, 6-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) collected back-to-back ACC wins for the first time in a month with a late 79-78 win over SMU (17-8, 6-6 ACC). Despite being down 12 points in the second half and only holding the lead against the Mustangs for 1:33, SU pulled off its largest comeback yet to grab the win.

The Orange surged into the lead after an electric stretch in the final minutes of the contest. SU was consistently down by about 10 points in the opening 10 minutes of the second frame. Then at the nine minute mark, Syracuse turned on the jets.

SU guard Kiyan Anthony got the momentum going for the Orange with a fadeaway jumper and a 3-pointer in under a minute. After that make from deep, the two squads traded off three more back-to-back-to-back scores from beyond the arc. Responsible for one of those triples was SU guard Naithan George, making it a two-point game. After multiple lead changes and back and forth buckets, Syracuse eventually pulled out the win with a driving layup from Nate Kingz in the final two seconds of the game.

“In that situation I went with Nate Kingz,” Autry said. “He’s really playing well at a high level right now. If we can get him the ball I knew he would get to the paint and he delivered and executed the play just the way we drew it up.”

A key player against the Mustangs was guard Kiyan Anthony. The freshman got his most minutes, with 24, since the Orange played Hofstra back on December 13th. Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry opted to keep JJ Starling on the bench for the last 16 minutes of the game while Anthony remained on the floor.

“Kiyan had a really good rhythm today and he was engaged,” Autry said. “I went with him. That was just my gut.”

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The freshman put up 13 points against SMU shooting 50% from the field and was one of four players to score in double digits. SU forward Donnie Freeman was another key element against the Mustangs, scoring a team-high 18 points and tallying a career-high four blocks. Speaking of rejections, Syracuse had eight blocks in the contest compared to just two for SMU.

Syracuse’s offense was cashing in from beyond the arc against SMU, knocking down 11 three-pointers to tie a season high. The Orange also attempted 30 shots from deep, matching another season best. From the start, Syracuse made it clear it wanted to compete with the Mustangs from the perimeter. SMU came into the game as the ACC’s second-best 3-point shooting team, and the Orange responded by launching 13 threes in the first half alone. In turn Syracuse held SMU to only seven triples, the fewest for the squad in nearly a month.

On the Mustangs side, freshman Jaden Toombs led the squad with 19 points and was one of six players to score in double figures. But, Syracuse turned the majority of its attention towards guard Boopie Miller. The senior was the sixth-highest scorer in the ACC entering the matchup averaging 19 points a game. Against the Cuse, Miller was held to just 11 points, tying a season-low.

“SMU is a very good offensive team,” Autry said. “Boopie is a lot to handle so we went to zone to try and slow those guys down. I thought we did a good job of that.”

Syracuse doesn’t get to ride this high for very long as they head to Durham, North Carolina to face No. 4 Duke on Monday. Game time between the Orange and the Blue Devils is set for 7 p.m. Our coverage on WAER begins with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Tipoff at 6:30.