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Buddy Boeheim gathered the ball at the top of the arc. Instead of opting for a 3 as he usually does, Buddy elected to drive at his defender. Dribbling back and forth, Buddy created some separation and drove into the key.

As Buddy entered the key, a Drexel defender blocked his path. But Buddy used his defender’s momentum against him and spun back around, sending his mark the wrong way. Buddy faded away and launched a shot over the help defender, but his shot hit the rim and bounced around before finally falling outside and into Drexel’s hands.

The miss epitomized Syracuse’s first half as the Orange entered halftime down 33-32. It was the first time this season, the Orange entered halftime without a lead and it was against a nonconference opponent.

“No one wants to play like that (in the first half) in front of our home crowd,” Cole Swider said.

Syracuse (2-0) topped Drexel (1-1) 75-60, notching its second win of the season on Sunday night. In the first half, Syracuse was on upset watch with Drexel scoring enough 3s to trade leads with the Orange. But at the start of the second half, Syracuse went on a 16-6 run to put an end to any upset hopes.

“Drexel is a really good team. I think they’re even better than I thought” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “First half, we gave them too easy, open looks. Second half we changed our rotation a little defensively, which we should’ve done sooner and got to the shots.”

With the Orange offense struggling in the first half, Syracuse and Drexel went back-and-forth. Drexel’s biggest lead of six points came deep in the first half with Syracuse reeling. As Syracuse’s zone forced the Dragons shooters out wide, Drexel shot 7-for-17 from 3 in the first half, keeping pace with the Orange on the scoreboard.

With just under 3 minutes left in the first half, Drexel’s Melik Martin hit another 3-pointer to give Drexel its biggest lead of the game. It looked like the Dragons would be able to build a sizable lead entering halftime, but Swider managed to make plays on both ends of the court to keep Syracuse in the game.

First, Swider received the ball on the left side of the court. He then took a second to size up his defender and elected to drive to the hoop. As he was driving, Swider attracted another defender, so Swider rose up to try a floater, but neatly dumped the ball off to a cutting Jesse Edwards for the easy layup.

Drexel inbounded and pushed the pace back the other way to try and answer with a quick two. The Dragons worked the ball around the zone quickly and tried to feed the ball in under the basket, but Swider jumped the pass and charged the other way.

As he drove down the right, Jimmy Boeheim followed and Swider dropped a pass in Jimmy’s hands and peeled away to the corner. After a quick stutter step, Jimmy drove to the basket and went up-and-under around a defender, tapping the ball high off the glass for the layup.

“They were trying to throw it out to the 3s,” Swider said. “It was just reacting, knowing what they were doing.”

In that 30 second stretch, Drexel appeared to have momentum, but Swider’s steal and two assists provided Syracuse an opportunity to reign the Dragons in just before halftime.

“We just all needed to make an adjustment,” Boeheim said. “(The Dragons) were real clever with what they were doing. It takes a while sometimes (to adjust).”

If the first half teased a potential upset, the Orange came out in the second half to squash any growing Drexel hopes. It began on Syracuse’s first possession of the second half when Buddy passed out to an open Swider on the left wing for a quick 3 and the lead.

On the other end, Drexel tried to set up its offense, but when the Dragons passed out from the paint to the wing, Joe Girard III stuck his hand in the way for the steal. As he charged the other way, he found Buddy on the wing, who instead of shooting, pump-faked and passed it back to Girard for another open 3.

“We just came out of there with a different type of attitude, a different type of energy and it really started on the defensive end,” Swider said. “We started getting a lot more steals, a lot more deflections, Jesse blocked two shots early and that kind of got us going, and we got out on the break and got some easy buckets.”

Drexel tried again to score, but this time Edwards came up with a big block and steal. As Syracuse ran its offense on the other end, the ball made its way to Jimmy, who posted up and hooked in a two. The Dragons would finally score their first points of the second half almost two minutes in, but seven seconds later Girard launched a stretch pass to Jimmy for the easy layup reply.

Back the other way, Syracuse almost forced a shot clock violation from Drexel, but the rebound fell to James Butler for a layup. After a Swider jumper, Drexel’s Xavier Bell replied with his won shot. However, on a quick inbound, Girard launched an outlet pass over the defense to an open Edwards for the dunk.

“The offense just got going … I think it also just goes to getting stops,” Girard said. “You can’t get a fast break if you’re not getting stops and I think that helped us a lot.

Syracuse didn’t finish its run there. When Drexel attempted to set up its offense, the Orange defense shuffled around taking away shooting opportunities. As the shot clock wound down, Butler tried a pass from the baseline back to a guard, but Girard tipped the ball over the guard’s head and ran down for a layup and waved his arms up getting the Syracuse crowd into the game.

“Coach told us at halftime we needed to start ramping up the defense a little bit,” Girard said. “I was missing some shooters, we were all missing some shooters on the defensive end, so it was just about getting to shooters and getting hands-on and getting deflections.”

In just three minutes and 33 seconds, the Orange went on a 16-6 run to capture a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. As the second half wore on, Buddy began to hit fades that wouldn’t drop in the first half.

After letting the lead bounce in and out of their hands in the first, the Orange rebounded at the start of the second and used the 16-6 run to grab the victory.

“We regrouped in the second half (and) made some adjustments,” Jimmy said. I’m proud of the way we came out and fought. Got to be better early on though.”

Published on November 14, 2021 at 7:03 pm

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu