The Syracuse Orange fell to the Florida State Seminoles 85-69, falling to 13-6 overall as the Noles improve to 6-2 in ACC play.
The Florida State Seminoles’ defense obliterated Syracuse, who went 44 percent from the field and seven percent from three-point range; the Orange’s worst performance to date. Judah Mintz seemed to be the only Orange who could manage on offense, scoring 28 points, the team’s leading scorer. For Florida State, Jamir Watkins had an outstanding night with 27 points and 11 rebounds, his highest point performance to date.
Takeaway #1: Foul shots killed Syracuse early on
It’s a tale as old as time: missed free throws cost a team the game. While this isn’t the sole factor that led to the Orange’s loss, it definitely had an impact.
Syracuse went 11-for-19 from the line in the first half. Mintz only made four of his nine free throws which really threw a wrench in the first half score.
Mintz is known for driving to the bucket, which is fine if you can make the shots. Most times he can, but it’s certainly hard to do when you have a guy all over you. It then becomes even more important to make those free throws, which Mintz failed to do.
He wasn’t the only one who struggled though. J.J. Starling went 2-for-4 which is below average for him.
While foul shooting improved to 11-for-14 in the second half, it was too little too late to be missing crucial shots. Kyle Cuffe Jr. went 0-for-2 which was strange considering he had gone 3-for-4 in the first half.
I could sit here and talk about numbers all day, but the point of the matter is there were 11 unguarded shots missed. Added to the final score, that’s 80 points the Orange could’ve had if they’d been more disciplined at the line.
Takeaway #2: Three-point shots were few and far between for Syracuse
Only going seven percent from three when you managed to go 59% two games ago is an issue. It wasn’t that the Orange were missing that many threes, they didn’t take any hardly at all. The final stat was 1-for-14 from behind the arc.
Postgame, J.J. Starling commented that this was just as surprising to him as it was the anyone.
“Shots that we missed were normally shots that we made. If you look at them, we didn’t have any terrible misses. They were all on target,” said Starling.
This certainly makes sense, but what doesn’t is the lack of aggression we saw from Syracuse. This is a team that averages 21 three-point attempts per game.
Credit to Florida State, they definitely played a part in pressuring the Orange while on defense. However, it seemed that Syracuse was constantly looking to Judah Mintz to do something with the ball instead of stepping up and making plays themselves.
Takeaway #3: Jamir Watkins is severely underrated
As Judah Mintz served as the backbone for Syracuse, Watkins did the same thing for the Florida State Seminoles. His season-high performance of 27 points proves it.
In his last five games, he’s scored double digits in all of them, not to mention his rebounding abilities that awarded him with a double-double.
Not only is Watkins underrated but his team is too. Florida State is currently the second ranked team in the ACC with a conference record of 6-2. In a conference filled with blue bloods, that’s pretty impressive.
The team boasts of limiting turnovers, only having nine against Syracuse. They take care of the ball, and their shot selection is mostly pretty smart.
Florida State also managed to shake the Orange up on defense, especially with their full-court press. I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard more about this team come March.
Next up for Florida State: vs. UNC (Sat., Jan. 27 – 2 p.m.)
Next up for Syracuse: vs. NC State (Sat., Jan. 27 – 7 p.m.)