Instant Juice: Syracuse 60, St. John’s 93

Gillon
Gillon couldn't get much done against St. John's
Gillon
Gillon couldn’t get much done against St. John’s

A quick take on Syracuse’s embarrassing 93-60 loss to St. John’s on Wednesday evening at the Carrier Dome:

WHAT HAPPENED: Up 59-48 with 11:29 left, St. John’s completely stymied Syracuse for the rest of the game, holding the Orange scoreless for over 3 and a half minutes to take a commanding 74-48 lead. Things got so bad for the Orange that fans began filing out of their seats with around eight minutes to go in the second half. There were so many factors to point to in the lopsided loss, but two of the main problems were turnovers and fouls. Syracuse committed an unslightly 19 turnovers compared with the Red Storm’s six, while SU was also whistled for seven more fouls than St. John’s. The Orange also struggled to defend the 3-point line, something that has been a recurring theme all season, with the Red Storm canning 12 of its 29 attempts.

» Related: Still hard to figure how Syracuse basketball will fare come ACC play

ANALYSIS: There is almost always a bright spot in every game, but it was hard to find one on Wednesday evening. St. John’s came into the contest with seven losses, including two to Delaware State and Long Island University. The Red Storm has teetered between awful and atrocious all season, and yet for the third year in a row (the first time SU has lost three straight to St. John’s since 1993), the Red Storm took it to the Orange. Any optimism that SU started with has been completely evaporated, and we aren’t even out of December yet. Syracuse simply cannot execute in any phase of the game right now. Defensively, it can’t stop the 3-pointer. Offensively, the Orange had 12 assists compared with 19 turnovers. Has any team under Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim’s long tenure underachieved as much as this one to start a season?

HERO: Bashir Ahmed and Shamorie Ponds combined for 39 points on 6 for 16 shooting from distance to lead the Red Storm. Tyler Lydon nothced a double-double for Syracuse with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

ZERO: Syracuse got nothing from John Gillon, Andrew White and Frank Howard. The trio combined to shoot 4 for 21 from the field for a combined 11 points. Ouch.

WHAT’S NEXT: Syracuse has one more tune-up before starting ACC play, when it hosts Cornell on Dec. 27 at 7:00 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.

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About Wes Cheng 2907 Articles
Wes has worked for Rivals.com covering the New York Knicks, as well as for Scout.com covering Syracuse athletics. Wes has also been a contributing writer for the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), for SportsNet New York (SNY) as a news desk writer covering all of New York professional sports, and reported on the NBA and MLB for the New York Sportscene. A native of Long Island, New York, Wes graduated from Syracuse University in 2005 with a degree in journalism. Contact him at wes[at]sujuiceonline.com.