Following a woeful offensive performance in Durham, Syracuse (18-11, 7-9) heads to Boston College (16-13, 6-10) in a game that will determine seeding in the ACC tournament. A loss would drop the Orange firmly behind Notre Dame and bring them level in conference play with the Eagles.
While Syracuse is concerned with its NCAA Tournament prospects, it cannot afford to look past Boston College. The Orange coasted to an 81-63 victory in the Carrier Dome earlier this season, but the last time the two faced off in Boston, the Eagles dropped 96 points en route to a 15-point victory.
'Cuse is in the midst of a slump as well. After letting a close game with North Carolina slip away, the Orange were hammered by Duke 60-44 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Those 44 points match a season-low for Syracuse in scoring, a mark it set against Virginia at the beginning of February.
SU vs. BC starts at 9. Countdown to Tipoff begins at 8:30 only on 88.3 FM, WAER.
BC finds itself struggling as well, losing three straight. The Eagles suffered a road loss to Miami by just a single point last time out. The Hurricanes hit a three with just 2.3 seconds remaining to steal the victory.
The last time these two teams shared the floor, Syracuse looked unstoppable on offense. Tyus Battle led the way with 24, but five Orange players finished the game with double digit points. As a team, 'Cuse shot a ridiculous 60 percent from the floor.
Jim Boeheim will need to find a way to rediscover that sort of output in this one. Battle and Frank Howard were the lone Syracuse players to cross the 10-point mark against Duke, with 12 and 11 respectively. The team shot abysmally as well, hitting only 31 percent of its attempts.
BC has some offensive play makers that SU will need to lockdown in order to win. Jerome Robinson leads the conference with just shy of 21 points per game while his partner in crime Ky Bowman averages 16.6, good for eighth in the ACC. Robinson is lethal from long range as well, knocking down 44.5 percent of his three-point shots.
While those two do damage from the outside, Syracuse should be able to control the paint. The Orange is third in the nation in terms of percentage of shots it has blocked. Paschal Chukwu also came just one point away from a career-high the last time these two teams met with 14 points. Syracuse will likely do most of its scoring around the basket.
The Orange closes out its regular season at home against Clemson on Saturday following its final road test of the year.