#17 Syracuse Edges Seton Hall in the First Round

#17 Syracuse Edges Seton Hall in the First Round

On March 13th 2013 in Madison Square Garden Seton Hall took on #19 Syracuse who seemed to be the home team. It was scary for Syracuse fans throughout the game watching their team struggle to get into any offensive rythm at the beginning of the game. The Orange may have had isssues at the start, but they were able to pull out the victory 75-63 with some offensive domination in the second half.

Seton Hall started off the game raining from behind the arc with 3 three point field goals in the first 3 minutes of the game. As this was going on Syracuse was having trouble figuring out the zone of the Pirates. Brandon Triche was the only Orangeman to score in the first 6 minutes of the game.

Just as Seton Hall was starting to become comfortable James Southerland stepped into the equation. Ever since his embarrassing day at Louisville, Southerland has been lighting up the scoreboard each and every game he plays. He is one of their top rebounders, but his 3 point shooting has been the real story in the past few games. After that poor offensive effort by the Orange Southerland knocked down 5 three pointers to conclude the first half of play. Triche scored a few more buckets tieing the game at 34 as the first half came to a close.

Momentum was definitely shifted towards the Orangemen with the fan support and the offense beginning to function normally again. Rakeem Christmas started off the half with some major dunks that got the fans on their feet. The real defining moment of the game was when Brandon Triche hit the wide open three pointer from the top of the key to put Syracuse up by 9 points. From then on out the Orangemen fended Seton Hall off and won the game.

At a post game interview Syracuse head coach, Jim Boeheim said. “Our offensive movement was the best it’s been, probably all year. We really moved the ball well.” Earlier in the game Syracuse struggled to get into and offensive flow, but at the end of the game it was Seton Hall having troubles on offense. Neither defense was amazing throughout the game there were just spurts when one team was able to score and the other was not. Aaron Cosby tried to get the Pirate’s offense going with 22 points, but one guy can not win a game for you.

For Syracuse C.J Fair had 16 points and 8 rebounds as Brandon Triche went off 17 points and 5 assists. Southerland really lit up the scoreboard in this game scoring 20 points off of 6-9 shooting from behind the 3 point line.  Seton Hall could not find a way to stop him which ultimately led to their demise. Michael Carter-Williams had trouble scoring the ball considering he only attempted 6 field goals in the game, but he was the one dishing out all of the passes to Southerland, Fair and Triche finishing the game with 14 assists.   

Seton Hall put up an excellent effort in the game. At the beginning it seemed that Syracuse was the underdog in the game because they were outplaying the Orangemen. Overall Syracuse was the team with much more talent which really showed in the second half and that ultimately lead them to the win. Against a better team Syracuse probably would not have been able to score so much in the second half and pull off that comeback, but they did what they had to do to win and they got the job done.

Michael Carter- Williams, guard for Syracuse