Syracuse Defeats Miami for First ACC Win

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse men’s basketball gets their first ACC win of the season and their first win of the new year as they defeat Miami 70-55 on Wednesday night.

The Orange have been trading wins and loses since beginning of December and have not strung together consecutive wins since they started the year off 4-0. But Tyler Lydon says this result is a confidence booster for Syracuse.

“You get a win under your belt like this at home in front of a crowd it just shows what we are capable of doing,” said Lydon.

The talented sophomore scored 20 points against the Hurricanes making this his sixth consecutive game of scoring in double digits.

While the youth of Syracuse is excited about the big win, older players like graduate transfer Andrew White III are not letting it get too much into their heads.

“We walked off the court and everybody was excited and I didn’t want to poop the party. I was just saying ‘one down’ and you hope you can get two in a row, three in a row. Keep it rolling,” said White. “I’m pretty thoughtful of what’s going on, I kinda keep the big picture in perspective. And it felt really good to win that game. Let’s keep doing it, let’s not be satisfied with this.”

Syracuse’s offense was lights out shooting as White led the charge with 22 points and ten rebounds, his first double-double of the season. The Orange boasted a 56.8% field goal percentage and also shot 42% from beyond the arc.

As the offense flourished, Jim Boeheim noted that the defense, which has been one of the worst parts of Syracuse’s game, was the big difference.

“We’ve been using the same defense for 41 years. It’s not like we changed something this week. We have to be active and I thought we were more active than we’ve been,” said Boeheim.

In the first half alone, SU held Miami’s top scorers, Ja’Quan Newton and Davon Reed, to a combined eight points and the pair finished the game 5-23 (21.7%) from the field.

Miami is a borderline top-25 program and Syracuse hopes to continue this success into this weekend as they host Pittsburgh, who is also coming off an impressive win against #11 Virginia on Saturday Jan. 7 at the Carrier Dome.