ATLANTA – Even guarded by Ben Lammers, Georgia Tech’s best player and one of the best interior defenders in the country, Taurean Thompson had his way.

Whether a turnaround hook, pump fake and drive or mid-range jumper, Thompson proved why he’s still undoubtedly Syracuse’s best interior scorer. The freshman poured in 14 first-half points, the most of anyone on the floor, while hitting 50 percent from the field.

Thompson was one rare bright spot in a stagnant offense for Syracuse (16-12, 8-7 Atlantic Coast) in its 71-65 loss to Georgia Tech (16-11, 7-7) at McCamish Pavilion on Sunday night. While the offense as a whole struggled, especially for the first chunk of the second half, Thompson finished with a team-high 18 points and 12 boards. He also logged his first career double-double while avoiding late foul trouble to give Syracuse’s offense a glimmer of hope before its bout with No. 10 Duke (22-5, 10-4) on Wednesday.

“I felt like they didn’t wanna pressure me a lot,” Thompson said. “It felt like the focal point wasn’t me, so it opened me up for a lot of opportunities.”

This season, Thompson has scored in spurts. He’s done so often at the beginning of second halves, but against the Yellow Jackets the SU freshman operated at will right after the ball tipped.

After blocking a pair of shots to in the first 4:22, Thompson hit a pair of foul shots after grabbing two offensive rebounds and drawing a foul. Then he cut baseline to flush home a John Gillon feed. Then a catch at the foul line followed by a turn, drive and left-handed finish with contact.

“I think he was aggressive and confident. He carried us in the first half,” fifth-year senior Andrew White said. “It’s just good for him to be out there to kind of give us a spark just because they had a problem defending the interior players, so he did a good job, had a lot of different moves in this game.”

Lammers came into the game ranked second nationally in blocks per game (3.3) and more than lived up to that billing, swatting a game-high seven shots. Thompson was on the wrong end of some, but got his fare share of payback on both ends. After hitting a long 2-pointer in front of the Yellow Jackets’ bench, Thompson held up three fingers before realizing his foot was on the line, instead putting one finger down and grinning on his way back down the court with Syracuse up seven late in the first half.

Thompson only scored four points on nine shots in the second half, partly because he temporarily exited with 13:13 remaining after picking up his fourth foul. It’s about the only thing that weighed down the freshman — a consistent problem this season.

Thompson faces that challenge again when the powerhouse Blue Devils arrive in central New York on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Mike Krzyzewski’s frontcourt is powered by fifth-year senior Amile Jefferson, and Thompson likely won’t go as unnoticed as he thought he did against Georgia Tech.

The Blue Devils are among the favorites in Vegas to win the national title, and it’ll take another herculean effort from Syracuse – including a foul-trouble free night from Thompson – to give the Orange a chance to pull off yet another Top-10 upset.

“He’s a 15-point-a-game scorer,” Boeheim said Monday, “if he could stay out of foul trouble.”

Published on February 21, 2017 at 10:32 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman