Clemson Lights Up the Orange, Syracuse Suffers First ACC Loss

By Lizzy Gomez

Clemson, S.C. ---- Eighteen points — the fewest scored by the Orange before halftime in any game this season.

In sharp contrast, the Clemson Tigers scored basket after basket, taking a 21-point halftime lead on the way to their 66-53 win over Syracuse on Saturday afternoon in Littlejohn Coliseum, ending a seven-game win streak by the Orange.

It’s the first ACC loss for Syracuse this season after the Orange went 4-0 to start conference play.

Christmas Carries the Orange

While the Orange ended the day shooting 37 percent from the field and just 13 percent from three-point range, Rakeem Christmas put up his sixth double-double of the season, accounting for 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said Christmas stands out as one of the elite talents in college basketball.

“He’s probably the best center in the country, that’s all I can say,” Boeheim said. “Based on his numbers, what he’s doing, he’s been tremendous. They’re doubling him every time, they’re fouling him every play, and he just keeps playing unbelievably.”

At the end of the first half, Christmas was 5 of 7 from the field for 11 points.

His teammates were a combined 2 for 21 heading into the locker room.

Clemson Head Coach Brad Brownell said his players went into the game with a mission to minimize the effectiveness of the Syracuse senior.

“They weren’t allowed to just throw the ball to Christmas and that was going to be their offense,” Brownell said. “We made it hard for him to get the ball.”

 

The 6’9 center performed well in several aspects of the game, making jumpers and fighting for offensive rebounds, even with a Clemson double-team on him all afternoon.

But even an impressive performance by Christmas couldn’t help the Orange come home with the win.

Tigers Don’t Miss

Just three games ago, the Orange managed to defeat Georgia Tech despite shooting a season-low 34 percent from the field and putting only 46 points on the scoreboard.

But that was when the competition was shooting in a similarly poor fashion.

Clemson, on the other hand, seemed like it couldn’t be stopped.The Tigers shot 45 percent from the field, making 23 of 51 attempts.

The real advantage, though, came from behind the three-point line.

Clemson went 8 of 20 from long range, while the Orange put just 2 of 15 three-pointers through the basket.

The threes kept falling for the Tigers and the crowd, covered in orange from courtside to the very top row, erupted with cheers as four Clemson players had at least one three-pointer by the end of the game.

Poor Production from Gbinije and Cooney

On the other side the court, Michael Gbinije was the lone Syracuse player to find any kind of success from beyond the arc.

The junior guard made 2 of his 5 three-point attempts, but went just 4-12 from the field.

Gbinije finished the afternoon with 11 points and 2 rebounds.

Trevor Cooney took five long-range shots, but failed to make a basket on any of his attempts.

Clemson forward Jaron Blossomgame said the Tigers planned to take Cooney out of the game as a deep-threat by putting him up against staunch defender, Rod Hall.

“[Cooney] is an unbelieveable three-point shooter, but Rod is probably our best defender,” Blossomgame said. “We figured that would make a pretty good matchup for Rod. He did his job tonight.”

But even with the Clemson game plan aimed at keeping the scoring opportunities away from Cooney, the junior had open shots.

He just couldn’t make them.

After averaging 25 points in his last two games, Cooney never found his rhythm against the Tigers, going 0-7 from the field.

“It’s the worst I’ve played, shooting-wise,” Cooney said. “I had some good looks. It didn’t go in.”

Cooney finished the game with just five points, all made at the foul line.

Boeheim said the Orange need to see more production from the two juniors.

For us to play well, Trevor [Cooney] and Michael [Gbinije] have to score,” Boeheim said. “If they don’t score, we’re going to have problems.”

Rebounding the Bigger Problem

Despite a below-average shooting night for the Orange where only four players managed to score, Boeheim said a lack of offensive rebounding ultimately cost Syracuse the win.

“The offensive rebounding was the game,” Boeheim said. “When we got stops in the first half, three or four times in a row, whenever we did play good defense and stopped them, they got four putbacks. We haven’t really had that happen this year.”

The Tigers scored 21 points off second-chance opportunities against the Orange.

Moving Forward from the Loss

After failing to win the rebound battle against Clemson, Syracuse looks to rebound from its first loss in eight games when it hosts Boston College (8-8, 0-4) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

The Orange men now stand at 13-5 on the season and 4-1 in the ACC.