STANFORD, Calif. — Syracuse dropped its third straight game, this time on a road loss to Stanford, 70-61.

Here are four takeaways from Wednesday evening.

The first seven minutes of the game went about as poorly as it could've gone for Syracuse.

The Orange opened 0-7 from the field with 4 turnovers, and with 12:36 left in the first half, SU had fallen behind 17-0.

"The game was decided in the first 13 minutes," head coach Adrian Autry said. "We dug ourselves a hole. We can't do that against a team like Stanford at home."

After a near hockey line change from head coach Adrian Autry, Kyle Cuffe Jr. finally gave SU the spark it needed.

He started the possession with a block, and kept the ball as he raced coast-to-coast to hit a contested shot in the lane to finally get the Orange on the board.

The early deficit was one that Syracuse could never fully overcome.

"I think we started off slow," Syracuse center Eddie Lampkin said. "We just have to play for 40 minutes. If we come out and we played like we played in the last 10 minutes, I feel like we can beat anybody."

While Jaquan Carlos didn't start the game, he quickly became Syracuse's most important player.

Carlos came off the bench to score 7 points on 3-3 shooting in the first half, while also adding three rebounds and three assists. He was the only SU player with a positive +/- rating in the opening half, finishing at +7.

Carlos started over Elijah Moore in the second half, and continued his solid offensive production, including hitting a pair of 3-pointers.

On the night, Carlos finished with 16 points on a perfect 6-6 from the field, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.

"I was just trying to bring energy," Carlos said. "I was just trying to get us back into the game."

Carlos' backcourt mate, JJ Startling, didn't enjoy such a productive evening.

Syracuse's top scorer struggled though a 3-16 shooting night, and finished with just 7 points in 33 minutes.

The start to the second half was particularly rough for Starling, who missed his first five shots. Though his diving layup with 3:32 left pulled SU to within 62-56, that was the closest SU would get.

Starling had come into Wednesday's contest leading Syracuse at 18.8 points per game on 45.6 percent shooting from the field.

In Jim Boeheim's illustrious career, which spanned from 1976–2023, he never experienced one thing: A five-game losing streak.

With Syracuse dropping their third in a row, a quick look at the schedule reveals that SU's next game against Cal will be critical to Autry avoiding such a streak in just his second season as head coach.

After Syracuse's two-game west coast swing, they'll return home to face No. 2 Duke on Feb. 5., which ESPN's BPI projects as a 92.8 percent likely win for the Blue Devils.

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