The Texas A&M Aggies and the Syracuse Orange face off on Friday in college basketball action. Both teams pulled Thanksgiving day upsets, with the Orange topping UConn and the Aggies taking out No. 10 Gonzaga to set up the title game.
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Boeheim’s math was off – Calhoun is now averaging 12 per game against the Orange and about 6.7 for his career against everyone else – but his point was well taken. The Huskies did not play well. He connected on eight of his nine field goal attempts. MI connected on 6-of-25 shots and 3-of-14 from 3-point range while falling behind 36-22 at halftime against UConn and the final stats weren’t much better as the Wolverines, who trailed by as many as 19 points before making a late run, shot 32.1 percent from the floor, including 8-of-29 from beyond the arc.
The Huskies, despite the quick turnaround from their late game on Wednesday, came out with an abundance of energy and jumped out to a 19-9 lead, as Sterling Gibbs, who had 10 first-half points, hit a couple of three-pointers and their defense was swarming, forcing Syracuse into bad shots.
The truth is UConn wouldn’t have deserved that extra opportunity. “We can’t get out on the break and attack it and beat the zone down the court”.
Three wins in three days thanks mainly to threes.
“Overall, [for] their first game [at the tournament], I really thought we were sharp, really moved the ball well”, he said.
“We got off to another slow start which concerns me”. His turnover numbers are elevated, but he has just three assists in four games.
The UConn run began after LaVert went to the bench with two fouls with eight minutes left before halftime. Richardson took a hard foul, which was ruled flagrant, and made both shots. Again, it was all about balanced scoring and sharing the ball against MI. Rodney Purvis and Shonn Miller each contributed 13 points. Gbinije broke that record without coming close to the tournament record for 3-pointers attempted.
That happened once again to the Huskies. At left is Syracuse’s Trevor Cooney.
The results, though, were right only for Syracuse, which overcame an early deficit; they fought off a UConn rally to win, 79-76 in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“The second half they really just took it to us offensively”, Ollie said.
The game was tight throughout the second half and featured nine ties and 12 lead changes. He has thirteen points, three assists, five steals. The pace of the game continued to accelerate, and the Huskies couldn’t keep up.
And now, barely 16 hours after dispatching Michigan – Syracuse. Brimah simply didn’t have the muscle to contend with Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski (7-1, 287) and Domantas Sabonis (6-11, 240). The 49ers are slightly above-average at valuing the basketball, turning it over on 16.6% of their offensive possessions, and are also solid on the offensive glass – grabbing 33.5% of their misses. SMU won the game 73-55.
Daniel Hamilton led UConn with 18 points.
The 3’s kept falling for Syracuse, though, and it finally got some separation at 72-63 on a three-point play by Cooney with 3:10 remaining.
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The Huskies must return to that style. Boeheim’s bunch proved that they will be a forced to be reckoned with come ACC play.
