Takeaways from Syracuse’s 94-86 win over Florida State

The Syracuse Orange (12-5, 3-1) kept showing improvements in last night’s 94-86 win over the Florida State Seminoles (7-10, 0-4). Let’s get to the takeaways:

Defensive struggles

Unlike the last two games, the Orange stumbled out of the gates and FSU made them pay from behind the arc. While the Orange missed 4 of their first 5 shots, the Seminoles came out of the gate firing and ended up hitting 7-11 from 3, Some of the shots were deep, but Syracuse got stuck under too many screens and gave FSU clean looks.

The Orange got better at making the shots tougher as FSU went 3-16 from deep the rest of the way, but 15 offensive rebounds and 20-27 from the line helped the Noles keep this one close down to the final minute.

(311) Heavens to Betsey

While the rest of the Orange took a bit to find their footing, Tyler Betsey came off the bench and kept the team in striking range. Betsey kept finding open spots and knocked down 4 first-half 3s. He finished the game with 18 points on 6-8 shooting from deep and without his 1st half this game could have played out differently.

Positives and Progress

Despite the final score, I felt like Syracuse took some steps forward in this one with how they approached the game. While the first half featured 18 3s from the Orange, in the second half they worked the ball inside. For the game Syracuse ended up with:

• 22 assists on 37 field goals, led by George’s 13
• 46 points in the paint
• 24 fast-break points

I also saw better decision-making from a number of players. When FSU made two second-half runs, the Orange did a better job of getting good looks. Kiyan pushed and found Kingz for an open 3. JJ passed on a 3 to get the ball to the paint. There were numerous lobs for easy baskets. Syracuse didn’t play a lot of iso-heavy possessions and they actually scored on two baseline out-of-bounds sets.

All around I thought it was a good showing on offense and while the defense could be better, it’s another step forward for this team. With Freeman back, it feels like they are beginning to find a better rhythm together and we’ll see if they can keep it going at Boston College.

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What were your takeaways from this one?