SYRACUSE, NY – With 5:05 to go and the Yellow Jackets holding a 53-49 lead, the Syracuse Orange took a timeout to regroup. Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim decided the Orange needed to go smaller despite his center, DaJuan Coleman, already out of the game with 5 fouls. Out went power forward Tyler Roberson and in came small forward Malachi Richardson.
The decision proved fruitful.
On the first Orange possession following the timeout, Richardson connected on a three-pointer from the right wing to cut the Tech lead to 1. The three points kick-started an 11-4 game closing run for the Orange. During the run Richardson scored 8 of his 13 total points, and the Orange emerged victorious by a final score of 60-57 in front of 25,235 fans.
The Jackets put themselves in position to win late through an inside-out strategy. Three of the four leading shot-takers were Yellow Jackets’ big men – Nick Jacobs with 15 attempts, Ben Lammers with 8, and Charles Mitchell with 6. Despite those shots coming primarily in the paint, the three big men converted just 12 of their 29 attempts.
After the game Head Coach Brian Gregory as well as Boeheim commented on the strategy.
Said Gregory, “We executed well against the zone. We got to just make a couple more shots around the basket, and that’s always been a big key for us.”
Said Boeheim, “We wanted their posts to get the ball a little outside the lane and try to make hard twos. They missed 14 or 15 shots in the paint area, which is better than having Smith and Hunt taking threes.”
One bright spot of late for the Jackets has been the steady improvement and output from center Ben Lammers. Against the Orange, Lammers matched his career-high with 10 points and added 7 rebounds. During the last 7 games he’s averaged 15.7 minutes, 1.6 blocks and has not committed a single turnover.
“I thought Ben Lammers played exceptionally well for us,” said Gregory. “As a sophomore to go into this environment, to ask him to do some of the stuff he did, I thought he was tremendous.”
Tech has now lost three of their last four by a combined 8 points. It is a pattern that looks eerily familiar on the heels of last season where the team experienced a plethora of heart-breaking endings.
“Our thing is we keep fighting,” said Gregory. “We stay positive but we deal in reality. We don’t sugarcoat stuff. The guys are coached hard and they play hard, and they know that they need to bring it every single day.”
With the loss, the Jackets’ record stands at 12-9 overall and 2-6 in the ACC. Next on deck are the Duke Blue Devils in Atlanta on Tuesday night.
