On Wednesday night, Otto’s army showed up to an ACC men’s basketball matchup between the Syracuse Orange and the Virginia Tech Hokies. Nearly 17,000 were in attendance as the Orange looked to cause a stir with an 82-72 win in the ACC ahead of March.
It was a story of two halves in this matchup. The Hokies put up a fight in the first half. Virginia Tech was led by four players, including three starters, all with eight points. Scoring wasn’t enough to keep up with the Orange as Virginia Tech was six behind at halftime.
In the first half, Orange made it as usual with Jesse Edwards and Joe Girard, who each had nine first-half points. Edwards also added four assists in the first half. Syracuse received excellent contributions off the bench from freshmen Justin Taylor and Malik Brown.
Taylor had a confident looking shot that went 2-3 from three. Malik Brown contributed 5 points and five rebounds. Brown finished the game with an impressive 12 points and 12 rebounds. Brown spoke post-game about what it means for him to be able to deliver that spark off the bench and use it as extra motivation.
“I’ve just come off the bench and I can see my teammates already playing in the first few minutes, no matter how many minutes it is.” Brown said, “Anytime I come into the game, I just have to be ready, stay focused and give a spark.”
Playing off the bench for nearly 34 minutes, Brown also delivered energy on defense as he finished with two steals and a block. After the game, Coach Boeheim praised Brown’s play throughout the game and spoke about Brown being more willing to get the rebounds than Williams was.
“It doesn’t matter who starts, it matters who plays, he (Brown) stays around the basket.” said Boheim. “He does that and that’s where the ball is and that’s where he gets some rebounds. Benny (Williams) wants to play 15-18 feet and there’s no rebound out there. And Malik does what we need him to do.”
Brown wasn’t the only member of the Orange to show outstanding play. Jesse Edwards and JG3 also joined the party after having a strong first half. Overall, Edwards finished with 13 points and a career-high six dimes. Edwards also showed up on the defensive end as usual, finishing with two blocks and a steal. JG3 displayed a shooting performance throughout the game with 3-7 from three and 10-20 shooting overall to earn 24 points as the team leader.
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The Orange as a team did a good job protecting the ball as they committed just nine turnovers compared to the Hokies 15. The Orange also had a solid performance off the bench, beating the Virginia Tech bench 26 to 12.
Despite the victory, the elephant was in the room after the game and Coach Boheim had to address it. Why did Benny Williams only play eight minutes that night? Willaims has averaged nearly 28 minutes per game this season. Boheim tried to explain if Williams playing low minutes was due to injury or just a basketball decision.
“He didn’t play well, you deserve your minutes. Someone’s playing, well, they’ll play more minutes. He’ll say he’s a bit weak,” Boheim said. “He’s focused on shooting jump shots, and he’s not a good shot to shoot a lot of jump shots. We need him to bounce and play defense; he is capable of that.”
The win over Virginia Tech puts the Orange to an 11-6 record overall and 4-2 in ACC play. Next time Orange plays Notre Dame (9-8, 1-5 ACC) at the Dome at 7pm on Saturday
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