THEY WERE prohibited from NCAA post-season play in 2014-15 but Syracuse made the most of their first tournament in over a year, highlighted by two wins over ranked teams.
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Forward Daniel Hamilton had 16 points, nine rebounds and nine assists as No. 19 CT opened the Battle 4 Atlantis with a 74-60 victory over MI on Wednesday night at Imperial Arena in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Syracuse’s Michael Gbinije (0) was a little too much for Tonny Trocha-Morelos and Texas A&M to handle Friday, scoring 20 points in the Orange’s 74-67 win.
Jalen Jones paced all scorers with 23 points in a reserve role for Texas A&M, tallying 16 in the first half.
A couple minutes later, with SU down two, Richardson played the passing lane perfectly, getting a steal and taking off to the basket.
Asked if he would entertain scheduling UConn in a non-conference bout, Boeheim replied: “I think there’s a reasonable likelihood that we will play CT again someplace”.
“We beat a very good team out there today”. The Aggies, in contrast, went to the line only 11 times, making seven. Wakumota shot one of the worst threes you’ll ever see with Wichita State down 62-60 with 10 seconds left. Also impressive is Cooney with ten points, two assists.
Things will likely take a turn for MI on Thursday. The Aggies went ahead on a free throw by House and denied Gonzaga sharpshooter Kyle Wiltjer the ball in the final possession to preserve the win and their second 6-0 start in the last three seasons. By the time the buzzer sounded, we had somehow climbed out of the ten point hole we had been in to tie the game at 34.
Gbinije and Cooney also had solid games.
LeVert’s impact was evident in the second half, where he would score 18 of his 21 points. He was the first player to reach double figures when his reverse layup gave A & M a 19-18 lead.
“I was proud of the way we played in the second half”, said Price. A&M responded with a basket and a triple to push their lead to 33-25 with less than two minutes until halftime.
The Wolverines started the game off well, grabbing a handful of offensive rebounds – something they didn’t do against Xavier- and jumped out to a nice 7 point lead to start the game. “Our goal was to hold their big three guys to 30 points or less and we were able to do that”, coach Billy Kennedy told the media.
Of course, that February 13, 2013 game was the last time UConn and Syracuse met as Big East foes.
CARRYING THE LOAD: Friday marked the second straight game that the trio of Gbinije, Cooney and Tyler Roberson played at least 32 minutes. Perhaps the most historic meeting came in the 2009 quarterfinals when Syracuse outlasted CT over six overtimes in the longest game in league history. “He’s averaging 15, 17 against Syracuse and five against the rest of the country”.
For the betterment of the game, Cuse and UConn should be scheduling home-and-homes every season, and it would make it even more fun if each school dedicated itself to playing that nonconference game in mid-to-late January, just to make it feel even more important.
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Syracuse plays No. 25 Texas A&M in the championship game.
