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Syracuse Struggles at the Free Throw Line, Falls to Miami

@WAERSports

Syracuse missed its chance at a double-digit point comeback by missing at the free throw line.

Rakeem Christmas scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, almost single-handedly willing his team back against Miami.  The Hurricanes weren't able to stop him in the paint so they intentionally fouled Christmas to put him at the line with four seconds left and the Orange down by three.

But Christmas missed both free throws, the final blow in Syracuse's 66-62 loss to Miami in the Carrier Dome.  Besides Christmas, Trevor Cooney scored 14 points and Tyler Roberson had ten for the Orange, who fell to 14-6 on the season. 

Syracuse went 8-for-19 at the line, the first time it has missed more than half of its free throws in a game all season.  As a result, the Orange lost its first game in conference play that was decided by five points or fewer.

"You're playing a good team and they're playing well," Jim Boeheim said.  "You can't miss 11 free throws.  That's really the ballgame."

Christmas' first free throw rolled around the hoop and off the side.  He intentionally missed the second one, but Sheldon McClellan grabbed the ball after it bounced off the back of the rim.  Christmas, who is a normally-reliable 73 percent shooter, went 5-11 from the charity stripe.

He missed Syracuse's first free throw of the game at the 18:55 mark in the first half, a harbinger of what was to come for the Orange.  Then, he made his second attempt to make it 1-0, which turned out to be Syracuse's only lead of the game.

The Hurricanes took advantage with scoring runs at the beginning of both halves.  They jumped out to a 10-1 lead after Syracuse started 0-4 from the field.  Then the Hurricanes broke open the tie game at intermission by going on an 18-6 run to start the second half.

Syracuse's comeback hinged on the improved play of Christmas as the game wore on.  After starting off 2-9, Christmas scored half of his team's points in the second half.

"I just tried to get to the spots I was getting to in the beginning of the season," Christmas said. "Like I said, I wasn't getting to those spots in the first half."

In the second half, Syracuse did a better job at driving to the lane and getting open shots, rather than settling for contested jumpers.  Christmas and Michael Gbinije scored and drew fouls on similar plays midway through the second half, which brought Syracuse back to 47-39.

The Orange got within one twice in the final minute, with a Christmas layup and a long Cooney 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions.  But the comeback came short with Christmas' misses, leaving the Carrier Dome crowd of 30,677 with a disappointing ending to a captivating second half.

"When you go to the free throw line in those situations, you have to make those free throws," Boeheim said. "We played hard and we battled as hard as we could and gave a great effort. But this game comes down to that you got to make those free throws in those situations."