Syracuse 94, Florida State 86: Orange hold on for third straight win

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Orange basketball team won its third straight game, pushing past the Florida State Seminoles 94-86 from the JMA Wireless Dome on Tuesday night. Syracuse snapped Florida State’s three game winning streak at the JMA Wireless Dome.

Syracuse (12-5, 3-1) was led by Donnie Freeman’s 25 point, 7 rebound performance against Florida State (8-10, 1-3). Tyler Betsey finished with a career-high 18 points on 6-8 outside shooting.

Adrian Autry made no changes to his starting lineup of Naithan George, JJ Starling, Nate Kingz, Donnie Freeman and William Kyle. 

Florida State punched first behind two buckets from Robert McCray V as the Seminoles opened up an early 11-3 lead. George dropped his defender and buried a three to stop the early run. A steal and score by Starling followed by three straight Freeman buckets narrowed the gap as Florida State led 15-14 at the first media timeout. 

Tyler Betsey, Akir Souare and Kiyan Anthony all checked in first off the bench for Adrian Autry at the 13:58 mark. The defense took a step back by surrendering a pair of threes and a mid-range shot, but Betsey responded by nailing his first two triples.

After a rebound, Anthony finished a lefty-lay in transition and Florida State head coach Luke Loucks called his first timeout leading 23-22. Sadiq White checked in on the opposite side of the timeout, making his first appearance.

The three point barrage continued and Florida State went to a 2-3 zone against Syracuse. Souare, who had a nice block at the rim, worked hard in his minutes for a pair of early rebounds. Kyle came back in for the backup center at the 9:03 mark. Anthony tied the game at 26 on a nice layup at the rim but Lajae Jones took the lead back on a layup of his own. Florida State went back to man. 

White picked up his second foul at the 6:54 mark. Autry kept him in the game, making substitutions for all but he and Starling. Freeman slid down to center for a brief time. Syracuse, staying in man defense with Florida State’s outside threat, did little to thwart the outside shot-making. Kobe Magee knocked down back-to-back threes to give his team a 36-30 advantage. 

Syracuse would go on a 7-0 run from there to claim the lead as a layup by Kyle, corner three from Betsey and a rather athletic reverse layup from Starling gave Syracuse the first lead of the game 37-36. Loucks called his second timeout of the half with 2:59 to play in the first.

Syracuse did go 2-3 zone in the first half for the last three minutes. Betsey made another triple, this time from the top of the key, to extend the lead. Freeman joined in on the three-point party but Alex Steen finished off a layup after an offensive rebound just before the half.

Syracuse led 43-40 at the break. Betsey led all scorers with a dozen while Freeman had 11. Florida State was 7-13 from three in the first half while Syracuse was 7-18. The Orange led the rebounding battle 20-15.

Out of the break Autry went back to the 2-3 zone as Freeman converted a three point play on the other end and Kyle had a dunk to set the tone. Chants of “Let’s go Orange” broke out from a sparse dome crowd for the first time of the night. Kyle threw down another dunk to lift the lead to double-digits although Florida State whittled it back to five before Kyle’s third dunk of the half. Kyle gave it right back on a goaltend for an and-one, however. Then a Starling layup and transition three by George got it back to ten. Loucks called his penultimate timeout with 16:28 to play. 

Florida State started to full-court press which seemed to ignite its 8-0 run. Kingz picked up his third foul after a turnover as Magee converted a three point play, which capped the run. The Seminoles showed a zone press and George made them pay by firing a laser to Betsey on the backside for a corner three – his fifth long-ball of the game. The Seminoles saw Syracuse’s triple and raised it a triple on a Jones corner three and another by Martin Somerville to knot the game at 61. 

Back and forth it went as Syracuse went up three, only for Florida State to take the lead at 65-64. George – having a strong night scoring and dishing the ball – then threw an inexplicable no-look pass to nobody in particular that landed out-of-bounds in the hands of the Syracuse bench. 

With Florida State denying Syracuse’s offense into Freeman, a strong drive and finish by White gave Syracuse the lead back. A McCray floater neutralized the White bucket. Thereafter, Syracuse found Betsey on an out-of-bounds under for three that gave the lead back to the Orange. White extended it to four after a putback layup. Then a White transition dunk off a lob from Starling got the crowd on its feet and gave Syracuse a three possession lead with eight minutes left. White, however, was whistled for a technical foul – his second of the season. 

Magee made both technical free throws and Somerville made a pair to make it a one possession game. On the ensuing possession, Anthony found Kingz for a corner three, and possessions later – following a Freeman swat – shoveled a pass to the Syracuse star on the break for a bucket and foul. Freeman converted the free throw for a three point play. The Orange led 82-75 with six minutes to play.

Down the stretch was Freeman time. He spun into a jumper that found the bottom of the net. He made a pair of free throws and Syracuse held a 86-79 lead with over four minutes left. Starling layup buoyed the lead to seven with under three to go. 

Freeman putback (while fouled) made it 90-82 Syracuse with 100 ticks left. Kyle dunk put the game away with 30 seconds left 92-86. Starling, leaving no holds barred, threw back a dunk for good measure and let out a “Let’s [expletive] go!” as Syracuse walked out with an eight point win.

Next up

Syracuse hits the road to take on Boston College this Saturday. That game tips at 2 p.m. EST from Conte Forum and airs on ACC Network.