Orange Win Fifth Straight Despite Poor Offensive Showing

Story and Photos By Lizzy Gomez

Rakeem Christmas makes his second free throw.

ATLANTA --The Syracuse Orange put just 46 points on the scoreboard against Georgia Tech in chilly downtown Atlanta on Wednesday night.

But for this night, 46 points was enough for the win.

The Orange slipped past the Yellow Jackets by one point for a tight 46-45 victory, giving SU its fifth win in a row.

Offensive Troubles

The effort was a sloppy one, with both teams failing to impress on the offensive side of the ball.

Syracuse shot 35 percent from the field, making just 18 of 52 attempts.

Georgia Tech couldn’t find much success on the opposite side of the court, sinking only 15 of 57 field goal tries.

Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim said couldn’t begin to describe the lack of scoring.

“Without a doubt the worst offensive game I’ve ever seen,” Boeheim said. “I can’t say anything else.”

The Yellow Jackets shot an abysmal 26 percent from the field, even as the Georgia Tech student section cheered on its Yellow Jackets with a “whiteout” in McCamish Pavilion.

With both teams searching for buckets all night, the game saw 14 lead changes as neither squad ever held more than a 4-point lead.

The shifting score lent itself to shifting runs of emotion from both fan bases.

Chants of, “Let’s Go Orange,” and “Let’s Go Tech,” rang out in the arena with each substantial momentum change.

The low-scoring contest was tied nine times throughout the night, with the two ACC competitors showing identical scores for more than seven minutes of the game.

Clutch Play From Christmas

The seesaw ultimately tipped in favor of the Orange when senior forward Rakeem Christmas hit two shots from the line, giving Syracuse a one-point lead with 12.4 seconds left on the clock.

Boeheim said Christmas showed great composure when it mattered most.

“Going to the line in that situation and making those two...that’s big,” Boeheim said. “You like to see a senior be in that position and make those free throws — they’re hard to make.”

Christmas led the team in scoring, ending the night with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

Down To The Last Shot

After a foul on Trevor Cooney and a Georgia Tech timeout, the Jackets inbounded the ball with 6.3 seconds remaining in the game.

Junior guard Chris Bolden first attempted to steal a last-second win for the Jackets with a three-point shot, but couldn’t make the basket.

“We were just playing the percentages that they aren’t going to make a shot because they hadn’t made any,” Boeheim said. “We didn’t want to let them get it inside. We wanted to throw it out and if they can make a three, then it’s just one of those things.”

With the last seconds of the game ticking away, forward Quinton Stephens grabbed the offensive rebound to give Georgia Tech one final chance at game-winning points.

But Stephens failed to make the layup from under the hoop and time ran out for the Yellow Jackets.

Even after leading Syracuse for over 18 minutes of the game, Georgia Tech couldn’t avoid losing for a third time in its last four competitions.

Improvements Needed

The Orange celebrated its second conference win in its first-ever appearance on the campus of Georgia Tech with the many Orange fans who came out to downtown Atlanta.

But Boeheim said the route to victory the Orange navigated on Wednesday night will not prove very successful should it be repeated in future competitions.

“If we have to hold somebody to 45 points to win a game, we’re not going to win many games,” Boeheim said. “I know we can play better offensively, but somehow we’ve got to get there.”

Junior Michael Gbinije accounted for 14 points and 10 rebounds in the Syracuse win.

Chris McCullough’s scoring slump continued, as the freshman went 1-7 from the field and 1-4 from the line for just three points on the night.

Boeheim said McCullough has no where to go but up in regard to his performance after what began as a promising start to the season has seen a steep decline in the past few weeks.

“We’d like to get him to play bad,” Boeheim said. “That would be a step up from where we are.”

Heading Into The Weekend

With the victory, Syracuse improves to 11-4 overall and 2-0 in the ACC.

Georgia Tech drops to 9-5 on the season and still has yet to reach its first conference win, having lost two straight heartbreakers. The Yellow jackets lost in double overtime at Notre Dame last weekend.

The Orange host Florida State (9-6, 1-1) in the Carrier Dome on Sunday at 8 p.m.