Syracuse basketball never trailed vs NC State in a wire-to-wire 74 to 60 win.
Syracuse basketball gets a lot closer to making the ACC Tournament in the first year of the new-look 18 team conference. They now are tied for 13th place in the ACC with Notre Dame, who they split the season series with.
Takeaway #1: Red (Autry) hot start
A 13-3 run to the first media timeout showed the Orange meant business. With buckets from four of five starters, and one made FG from NC State early. Then they extended. Syracuse was up 28-12 with 7:15 left in the first half. This game had the largest home lead for the Orange since 12/10/24 vs Albany. Syracuse never trailed, and had this game in control throughout.
“We got a week off. We got refreshed,” said coach Autry. “We’ve got a lot to play for.”
Coach Autry also believes this is the closest Syracuse has gotten to playing 40 minutes of mistake free basketball.
Takeaway #2: NC State’s road woes
Only two power conference teams have played nine or more conference games on the road and lost all of them: Seton Hall and NC State. Three teams in the ACC are winless on the road overall: Boston College, Miami, and NC State. Barring some chaos in these final weeks, it looks like those three teams will miss the ACC Tournament.
Takeaway #3: Transition ignition
Syracuse shined in transition tonight. On defense they allowed zero points on the fast break, and scored 11 of their own. Five out of the last six games Syracuse had given up 80+ points. Tonight, they held the Wolfpack to 60. The defensive effort tonight was the best we’ve seen from the Orange all season.
“We talk about the three seasons,” said coach Autry. “If we get a chance to go to the ACC Tournament that’s a new season for us. We lost a lot of games that we had control of and got away from us late.”
Syracuse now has a 99% chance to make the ACC Tournament after last night’s results. So, they’re pretty much set to go to the ACC Tournament. If they want to make it to their “third season” (aka March Madness), they’ll need to win five games in five days in the conference tournament.
Next game for Syracuse basketball (12-16, 6-11): at Virginia Tech (12-16, 7-10) – Mar. 1 at 12 p.m. EST
Next game for NC State basketball (11-17, 4-13): at Georgia Tech (14-14, 8-9) – Mar. 1 at 3 p.m. EST