A scoring surge to the game and the heroics of J.J. Starling combined helped to propel the Syracuse Orange to a 79-71 road victory on Saturday over the Boston College Eagles — the program’s first road win of the 2024-25 season.
Syracuse jumped out to an early lead before BC stormed back to tie the game by halftime and take as much as an eight-point lead with under nine minutes to go. From there, better execution particularly on offense put the Orange out in front for good to hand the team its second consecutive win.
An interesting result yields plenty of fascinating points to break down and discuss further, including some trends we could see going forward as Syracuse continues with its ACC portion of the schedule.
As always, here are your takeaways from Syracuse’s comeback win over the Eagles:
Starling scorches in second half
It was a quiet start for Starling, who had just a few baskets heading into halftime with the game tied at 32-32. Considering he just returned from injury exactly a week ago, you think it would’ve taken more of a ramp up to get Starling back into form.
Instead, he’s picking up right where he left off.
Starling had his second straight game scoring more than 20 points, finishing the game with 26 points (third-most this year) on 12/22 shooting (54.5%). More impressively, he did that without making a three (0/4) and rarely getting to the foul line (2/2), with those attempts coming late in the game.
The scoring outburst in the second half wasn’t just empty calories either. It was essentially one of, if not the most important, reason Syracuse was able to come away with the win by the final buzzer.
Boston College found its groove to start the second half, outscoring the Orange 22-14 coming out of halftime to take an eight-point lead (54-46) at one point. From there, Starling pushed the Orange back in the fight and he reliably became the go-to scorer down the stretch.
It’s certainly feels good to have him back on the court, now and hopefully moving forward.
Livin’ (and dying) with Lampkin
The BC matchup saw fans experience the full Eddie Lampkin Jr. experience.
The good: a double-double (10 points and 13 rebounds), efficient shooting (60%), reliability on the glass (especially in the first half), just enough playmaking (3 assists) and physicality inside.
The not-so-good: 3 turnovers, a few frustrating moments, and inconsistency on defense.
Lampkin brings a lot of pros and cons to the table, but considering the current state of the rotation, even some of the aforementioned not-so-good attributes can still be outweighed by the other things he brings to the table.
Lampkin ended up playing 33 minutes, which might be his most important statline on the day. Donnie Freeman’s continued absence means Syracuse (for now) has one less frontcourt option to go to. Petar Majstorovic can play spot minutes, but mainly next to Lampkin to give the Orange more rebounding and inside presence overall.
It’s basically Lampkin or bust at center right now, and that can work as long as the good continues to shine more than the bad.
Missing link at shooting guard?
The key discussion with Starling out with injury: where would Syracuse gets its offense from? After back-to-back strong performances, there’s a new question to answer on the perimeter.
Who can be the ideal sidekick next to him?
Kyle Cuffe Jr. (10 points, 3/4 shooting, 2/3 from three) might end up being the answer. He hit consecutive triples to help spark that late-second half scoring run, including this one:
Cuffe fared better compared to the rest of the options available at coach Adrian Autry’s disposal. Elijah Moore started at the two and ended with zero points on 0/2 shooting in 13 minutes and really didn’t give the Orange much of anything. Chris Bell came off the bench and never got going at all (3 points, 0/5 shooting).
With BC getting out in front, it was Cuffe who came in and provided the spark that led to Syracuse catch fire.
Is it sustainable? The answer depends on how big Cuffe’s role ends up being.
Personally, I think if it’s in a 15- to 20-minute spot, Cuffe’s energy, pressure on defense and at least willingness to shoot from the outside is a clean fit with Starling. On the flip side, if Moore and/or Bell can’t get going offensively, the question I pose is what else are you getting valuable from the two of them? Cuffe’s offensive ceiling is the lowest of the three, but he certainly brings other attributes that Syracuse really needs right now.
After this Boston College game, keep an eye out on that shooting guard spot going forward.
Possible formula for success…
At this point in the year and with the Orange (maybe?) finding a little bit of the groove, it’s clear how this team can win going forward.
Starling will need to continue being the top option and perform at an efficient rate. After that, there just needs to be enough scoring from any of Lucas Taylor (15 points, 4/6 shooting), Jyare Davis (12 points, 7 rebounds), Lampkin, Freeman and company.
Defensively, if the Orange are going to have a chance at all against these other ACC opponents, limiting threes and not getting killed on the glass are the two best bets. Syracuse tied BC on rebounding and held the Eagles to 4/16 from three. A similar formula worked against Georgia Tech.
This last point might be the most fascinating to see if it continues: does Autry just cut down the rotation to no more than seven players at this point? Syracuse ended up playing nine players against BC, but four (Lampkin, Taylor, Starling and Davis) played 33 minutes or more. Jaquan Carlos only saw five minutes, Moore and Majstorovic were each at 13 and Bell played 11.
Now it’s your turn: what are your takeaways from the Orange’s 79-71 win over Boston College?
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