This time the Orange relied on the toughness-driven brand of basketball that was its hallmarks in its Big East Conference days.
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Syracuse is now undefeated at 5-0 and will get Texas A&M – a legit, top-three team in the SEC – in Friday’s Battle 4 Atlantis championship game. Lydon finished with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench.
Cooney also had five assists. But UConn relies on a team effort that was missing againt Gonzaga.
“The second half they really just took it to us offensively”, Huskies coach Kevin Ollie said. Neither side led by more than four for a majority of the half as the teams traded buckets and stops in a game that had a grind-it-out feel. Moments after subbing into the game, Tyler Lydon turned his first touch into a three-pointer from the left wing, capping the 10-0 run and giving the Orange a 13-7 lead. He finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds for his first double-double at SU.
“We can’t keep getting down and then start playing”, Ollie said Friday.
The Orangemen’s famous zone defense forced UConn out of its offensive rhythm, late in the first half, and early in the second, and they built a 10-point lead with less than seven minutes to play. UConn fell behind in both games when it couldn’t finish around the rim in traffic. We wrote on this game earlier.
UConn’s Sterling Gibbs scored eight points in the first 3½ minutes, but scored just four the rest of the way, hampered in part by foul trouble. Opponents have a 30 percent 3-point percentage against the Huskies. Hamilton scored inside and was fouled on the play, and his ensuing free throw cut the Wolverines’ lead to 12-8.
Tyler Roberson got the burst started by kicking a pass out to Trevor Cooney for a three-pointer late in the shot clock. But it found the ball in a scramble for the rebound and was able to run out the final seconds. A&M responded with a basket and a triple to push their lead to 33-25 with less than two minutes until halftime. On offense, he hit shots outside, hit shots inside, drove to the hoop, and even made his free throws.
Texas A&M is 6-1 against the spread following a win, 8-3 against the spread in their last 11 games, and 7-16 against the spread in their last 23 neutral site games.
And now, barely 16 hours after dispatching Michigan – Syracuse. Cooney ended up with 17 points as well. That total is 101 victories, which reduces coach Boeheim’s career win total from second on the all-time wins list with 969 to sixth at 868. “Syracuse is good and you have to give them credit”, he said. “I think that’s the one rule change I think is really a bad change”. While the Shockers’ losses to USC and Alabama don’t help them from an NCAA tournament standpoint, the bigger issue is the team’s health. “These guys really played hard and played huge minutes three days in a row”, Boeheim said. Ollie expressed a similar desire to make it happen. I think both universities would like to continue the rivalry. “We’ll look at the schedule, look at the teams we already have contracts for and we’ll figure it out and see what’s best for UConn”.
It was hardly the greatest game the two have ever played in their 92 meetings.
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After Michael Gbinije opened the scoring with a trey, Texas A&M struck back for the next seven points of the game.
