Jim Boeheim said that his team saved its best game for its best opponent. But his two freshmen saved their worst moments for the final minute against No. 17 Michigan.
The Orange had eliminated the Wolverines’ 10-point lead, tying the game with 56 seconds to play. Then Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough both turned the ball over with less than 20 seconds left and Syracuse trailing by one.
“You can’t do that and win games,” Boeheim said after the game.
Syracuse (5-2) squandered an excellent opportunity for a resume-building win in Ann Arbor by committing a season high 19 turnovers. The Orange fell, 68-65, in another close loss to the same team that spoiled Syracuse’s Final Four season just two years ago.
“They made a few runs,” Joseph said. “We fought back and it was definitely a tough battle. But down the stretch, we made some careless mistakes – things we could fix moving forward. I think if we fix those, we’ll be in good shape.”
The slumping Trevor Cooney hit back-to-back threes with about four minutes left that spurred Syracuse’s 15-5 run to get back in the game.
Twice, the Orange had the chance to take the lead in the final seconds. Michigan missed the front end of a one-and-one on consecutive possessions, while clinging to a 66-65 lead. McCullough threw the ball away on an errant pass up the court and Joseph fumbled the ball out of bounds on the next series.
“I was driving in, hoping to draw some defense and kick it out, but didn’t find an open player and made a mistake,” Joseph said.
The Orange shot 50 percent – a noticeable improvement from its past performances – but failed to generate any offense when it needed it most in the crucial last few possessions.
“Sometimes it comes down to two or three plays and they just didn’t go our way,” Joseph said.
Boeheim calls it a "great effort" coming back from 10 down, credits Gbinije being aggressive. "But you gotta make a play at the end."
— WAER Sports (@WAERSports) December 3, 2014