Saturday night, Syracuse was humiliated by a Wake Forest team that seemingly could not miss at their own gym, 99-70. The Demon Deacons (14-7, 6-4 ACC) shot 66.0 percent from the field on the night, including a sizzling 63.2 percent from 3-point range, in torching the Orange (14-8, 5-6 ACC).
SU simply shot themselves out of the game in the first half, shooting just 34.5 percent from the floor in the first half, including a 3-for-11 mark from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Wake shot a crisp 64.0 precent from the field, including hitting 5-of-9 from long range, powering their offense in a game where they never trailed and were tied for less than three minutes.
Syracuse compounded their early shooting woes by not being able to chase down their misses. The Demon Deacons held a 19-9 rebounding lead in the opening half, including collecting 16 of the 19 missed Orange shots, and ended the game with a 36-23 advantage on the glass, allowing SU to gather in just seven offensive rebounds.
The Orange got off to another slow start, making just 3-of-14 field goal attempts to open the game, even with the Demon Deacons gifting them five early turnovers. That poor shooting left the door open for the hosts and they walked right through it. Wake Forest rung up eight straight points in a span of 75 seconds for a 15-7 lead, drawing a Syracuse time out.
The Orange immediately halved that margin, but the Demon Deacons responded with 15 of the game’s next 19 points, capping that burst with ten straight markers, to double up the Orange at 30-15 with 4:26 left in the half. The gap stayed at least a dozen points the rest of the half, reaching its largest point at 16 before a Judah Mintz jumper trimmed it to 42-28 at halftime.
Wake got the opening basket of the second half, but SU responded with a quick 7-2 burst, including five points from Justin Taylor, to draw within 11. The Deacs responded with an 11-3 run to inflate the lead to 20 at 58-38 just over five minutes into the second half.
Things momentarily improved for Syracuse, as they struck back with two baskets, but things quickly got out of hand from there. Over the next six minutes, Wake Forest simply blew out the Orange, outscoring them by a 23-10 margin to make it an 81-52 game and force another time out.
SU struck back with eight straight points, but the Demon Deacons laid the game’s next 11 points on them, stretching the lead out to 92-60 with under five minutes to play. The lead would reach 33 points twice before Syracuse got the last four points of the night.
J.J. Starling had 12 of his 15 points in the second half to lead the Orange while Mintz tallied all 13 of his markers in the first half. Quadir Copeland had 11 points and Taylor added ten, all coming after intermission.
Hunter Sallis barely missed all night, finishing 7-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-5 from long range, and 6-for-8 at the foul line, for his game high 24 points. Kevin “Boopie” Miller piled up 14 of his 21 points in the second half while Andrew Carr dropped in 16. Cameron Hildreth logged a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.
—-
Chat about this story and all things Syracuse and Syracuse recruiting on our premium message board, Cuse Classified!
Follow us on Twitter @TheJuiceOnline, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram @SUJuiceOnline and listen to our podcast.
Tips/questions/concerns? E-mail Recruiting Analyst Charles Kang here.
Not a subscriber to The Juice Online? Join today for access to all our premium content and message board community.
