Orange Escapes Terriers Grip

Story and Video by Mason Walling
Photo by Michael Silver

            The St. Francis Terriers would simply not lie down on Monday night, but it was the Syracuse Orange who wound up standing at the end winning by a final score of 56-50.

             "It's a very difficult game," SU coach Jim Boeheim said afterward, "I think this will help us going forward."

            St. Francis came out of the break hot, taking the lead 33-32 on a three pointer from Anthony White with just over 17 minutes left.  Syracuse tied the game four times after that but the Orange would not hold the lead again until there was less than a minute left.


           "We've certainly got a lot of work to do and that's not a surprise," Boeheim said.

            DaJuan Coleman led the charge early on for the Orange, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds in the first 12 minutes of play.  With just over two minutes to play in the first half, Trevor Cooney hit a three-point jumper from the corner and was fouled, giving Syracuse a six point lead after completing the four point play.  However, the Orange never led by more than eight in the first half, and the Terriers went into the break only trailing 30-26.

            With only one minute and thirty seconds remaining, C.J. Fair missed a contested layup, but Jerami Grant got the rebound and the put back to tie the game at 50.   On the next possession, Grant got a steal and drove the ball coast to coast, dishing it to Michael Gbinije for the go-ahead layup.

St. Francis forced up desperate shots on its next two offensive tries, leading to a must foul situation where a pair of free throws from Grant and another pair from Fair sealed the win for the Orange.  Syracuse held St. Francis scoreless in the final four minutes of the game.

Each team had three players finish in double digits as Coleman led the Orange with 14 points while Grant had 13 and Cooney 12. C.J Fair, who'd been averaging over 20 points a game was held to seven on two for 13 shooting.  Jalen Cannon of St. Francis led all scorers with 16 points, as Wayne Martin finished with 13 and Anthony White with 10.

The Terriers fall to 2-2 on the season, and the Orange improves to 4-0 as the team prepares to travel to Hawaii to finish out the bulk of the Maui Invitational. Monday's game was billed as the opener for the Maui tournament although had St. Francis pulled off the upset Syracuse would still have advanced.

            "Any team is beatable in the NCAA, we almost lost to St. Francis, so definitely going into this [Maui Invitational] we have to build our confidence up and get ready to play next time," Jerami Grant said after the game.