WHAT HAPPENED: Up 20-11 with 11:51 left in the first half, Syracuse went on a 10-0 run highlighted by a pair of Trevor Cooney 3-pointers. Cooney came out firing early, scoring Syracuse’s first 11 points, nine of them on 3s, en route to a 19 points in the first half (he’d finish with 25). Wake Forest struggled on both ends of the floor and never made it competitive after SU’s early run.
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ANALYSIS: Wake Forest came in dead last in the ACC in opponent field goal percentage (45), and was 316th in the NCAA at 78.8 points allowed per game. It was more of the same on Saturday, with Syracuse easily slicing through the Demon Deacon defense. Syracuse shot 44.4 percent from the field and 10-25 from downtown in its best offensive performance in conference play. Michael Gbinije in particular had no problems getting inside, with five of his six made field goals coming on uncontested dunks. The only trouble on the afternoon for SU came with fouls, with Chinoso Obokoh fouling out, and DaJuan Coleman, Gbinije, Malachi Richardson and Tyler Lydon all picking up four fouls.
HERO: Aside from the aforementioned Gbinije and Cooney, Tyler Roberson was a force in the game, finishing with 16 points and 13 rebounds, seven on the offensive end. It was part of a +8 effort on the boards for the Orange.
ZERO: Codi Miller-McIntyre went 1-7 from the field and 4-7 from the free throw line for just six points. Things got so bad for him that he air balled one of his free throws. It part of a miserable offensive effort overall for Wake, which shot 32.6 percent from the field and 2-20 from distance.
WHAT’S NEXT: Syracuse moves to the second game of its three-game road swing, playing at Duke on Monday at 7 p.m.
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