Syracuse Game Report
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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – In his 43 seasons overseeing the men’s basketball program at his alma mater, Jim Boeheim has seen almost everything. On Monday night, Syracuse’s Hall of Fame coach saw something new, much to his dismay.
“They shot the ball as good as I’ve ever seen it shot, put it that way,” Boeheim said of the Virginia Cavaliers.
In the state where Joe Harris now regularly torches opponents for the Brooklyn Nets, his college team put on a display of marksmanship worthy of the NBA’s reigning 3-point champion. Led by junior guard Kyle Guy, second-ranked UVA shot 18 of 25 (72 percent) from 3-point range and thumped Syracuse 79-53 in an ACC game witnessed by an ESPN audience and a crowd of 29,052 at the Carrier Dome.
Many of those fans exited the arena long before the final horn sounded. The Wahoos (27-2 overall, 15-2 ACC) had runs of 11-0 and 16-0 in the second half.
“They’re a team I have a lot of respect for,” Boeheim said. “I think it’s the best team I’ve seen at Virginia, by a lot, in my mind, because of the experience the guards have now.”
Apprised of Boeheim’s comment, UVA head coach Tony Bennett said, “I hope he’s right. I’ve been blessed with some really good teams.”
This is Bennett’s 10th season at Virginia, where his program’s trademark has long been its suffocating man-to-man defense. His latest team, though, also has exceptional offensive firepower, as Syracuse (19-11, 10-7) will attest.
Against the Orange’s famed 2-3 zone defense, Guy was 8 for 10 from beyond the arc, junior guard Ty Jerome was 5 for 6, and redshirt sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter was 5 of 7. The Cavaliers’ 18 treys tied the school record set against Gonzaga in 2007.
“To have all three of them get that hot, it was good,” said Bennett, whose team can clinch at least a share of the ACC’s regular-season title, as well as the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, with a win Saturday over Louisville.
“We went into the game wanting to make them drive, get them off the 3-point line,” Boeheim said. “We didn’t do that. So when you let Guy and Jerome shoot those shots, they’re going to make them.”
The eight 3-pointers were a career high for Guy, a third-team All-American in 2017-18. So were the five treys for Hunter. Guy was one off the school record held by former great Curtis Staples, who twice made nine in a game. Several of Guy’s treys came when he was closely guarded.
“The shot clock was getting down a little bit,” Guy said, “and I’d hit a couple, so I just fired with confidence.”
Jerome said: “That was an unreal performance by him. That’s all I can say.”
The 6-2 Guy, who pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, led all scorers with 25 points. The 6-7 Hunter added 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and a career-high three blocked shots.
The 6-5 Jerome hurt the Orange in a variety of ways too. He finished with 16 points, four steals and three rebounds and, with 14 assists, tied the school record shared by former stars John Crotty, Cory Alexander and Harold Deane.
“Great game by Ty,” Bennett said, “and that stat line I loved.”
For much of the second half, Jerome worked the high post in the Cavaliers’ zone offense, and his assist total steadily grew as Guy, Hunter, 6-9 redshirt junior Mamadi Diakite and 7-1 redshirt sophomore Jay Huff hit shot after shot.
“I had Kyle and Dre around me making 3s,” Jerome said, “and Mamadi under the basket and Jay under the basket, and they both finished, and they did also a bunch of little things, like setting screens, that go unnoticed but that we definitely notice.”
The Cavaliers work daily on their shooting, and their ball movement led to countless open looks Monday night.
“It was just a matter of being confident enough to shoot ’em, and even if you miss, keep shooting, and hopefully they go in,” Hunter said. “Luckily tonight everyone was hitting. It was honestly a crazy feeling.”
Hard as it might be to believe from the final score, Syracuse led this game five minutes into the half. But the ‘Hoos outscored the Orange 37-10 over the final 14:40.
“We made some tough shots, and that helps you,” Jerome said, “but I think our defense really stepped up.”
Syracuse shot only 33.3 percent from the floor Monday night, in part because of Hunter’s defense on Tyus Battle. A 6-6 guard who came in averaging a team-high 17.7 points, Battle was 5 for 19 from the floor and scored 11 points against Virginia.
“What De’Andre did on him, I think, was impressive,” Bennett said.
Hunter “took the challenge of guarding [Battle] one-on-one,” Jerome said, “and he was unreal.”
At halftime, the Cavaliers had eight turnovers and trailed 34-32. Syracuse turned those turnovers into 12 points and also had nine second-chance points at the break.
“Obviously, we had some stuff we had to work on,” Guy said, “but calm is contagious, and this team has that.”
Bennett said: “I like this team.”
TALE OF TWO HALVES: Hunter, Guy and Jerome each scored 10 first-half points Monday night. Junior forward Braxton Key had the Cavaliers’ other basket in a half in which Diakite went 0 for 4 from the floor.
“He wasn’t quite as alert or in tune as we needed him,” Bennett said of Diakite, but that changed in the second half.
Diakite finished with nine points and five rebounds and matched his career high with four blocks.
“For him to respond the way he did was big-time for him and for us,” Jerome said. “We need everyone going forward. Every single game we need everyone to step up and play their best, because you never know what’s going to happen.”
THEY SAID IT: The victory was UVA’s sixth in its past eight games with Syracuse. Among the postgame comments:
* Hunter on Jerome’s prowess in the high post: “He’s a point guard with great size. He can pass, he can score, he can basically do everything on the court, so just having him in the middle making decisions helped our offense a lot.”
* Jerome on whether he was able to appreciate the Cavaliers’ sharpshooting in the moment: “You don’t have time to really think about that during the game. It’s about the next play and trying to get a stop, especially with a team like [Syracuse], because you know how capable they are of coming back.”
* Jerome on the elbow to the head he took early in the game from Syracuse forward Oshae Brissett: “It was probably inadvertent … I don’t think it was a cheap shot or anything like that. It happens in basketball.”
* Boeheim on the Cavaliers: “They’re better offensively than they’ve been, and they’re still good defensively.”
* Boeheim on Battle: “When he doesn’t score for us, that’s an issue.”
THAT’S A WRAP: UVA closes the regular season Saturday against Louisville (19-11, 10-7) at John Paul Jones Arena. ESPN will televise the 4 p.m. game, before which center Jack Salt and team managers Faris Wasim, Ben Buell and Justin Maxey will be recognized in a Senior Day ceremony.
The Cavaliers have won eight straight over the Cardinals. When the teams met Feb. 23 at the KFC Yum! Center, Virginia erased a 10-point halftime deficit and won 64-52.
“It’s our last home game,” Jerome said. “We’re going to prepare hard and then enjoy it.”