While Syracuse-California did not provide any major NCAAB news, the Orange did right their ship by snapping a three-game losing streak with their 75-66 victory. The Orange men’s college basketball team also snagged their second road win in ACC play, leaving them one victory of tying the mark set by last season’s 20-win team.

While their next game on Wednesday against Duke is a daunting task, SU did a couple things to build on for the rest of their season.

While Syracuse has struggled with their perimeter shooting, there has been a noticeable uptick in their performance beyond the arc in conference play. The Orange have collectively made 33.3 percent of their 3’s in 11 ACC games against a 30.3 percent mark in non-conference action.

In fact, four different players are shooting over 35 percent from long range against ACC competition, although a couple are on limited attempts. Jaquan Carlos is 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) in those games, just ahead of Chris Bell whose 17 3-pointers in ACC play have come at a 44.7 percent clip. J.J. Starling (16 treys) and Lucas Taylor (13) have helped diversify SU’s perimeter attack in conference action, as well.

While Donnie Freeman’s absence has hindered the Orange, they have gotten scoring support from several players on the roster. Nine different players average at least five points per game on the season with eight tallying at least six points per game in conference play.

While the team is viewed as Starling being the clear leading man, as he has led the team in scoring on eight occasions, seven other different players have paced the team in scoring in a single game:

Jyare Davis – 22 vs. Le Moyne, 20 at Notre Dame

Eddie Lampkin – 15 vs. Colgate, 18 vs Georgetown, 18 vs. Bucknell

Freeman – 23 vs. Cornell, 20 at Notre Dame, 24 vs. Albany

Elijah Moore – 24 at Tennessee, 16 vs. Maryland

Carlos – 16 vs. Wake Forest, 16 at Stanford

Taylor – 16 vs. Wake Forest, 19 at California

Bell – 18 at Florida State, 18 at Louisville

While that list of single-game scoring leaders is inflated by Starling missing seven games due to injury, there are still seven other games where he played, but was not the leading scorer. The diversity of production has to be tapped into in order to alleviate some pressure and defensive focus off Starling.

While Lampkin grabs the most notice for his rebounding work (9.0 rebounds per game overall, second in the ACC with 10.5 boards a game in conference games, 23 boards against Pitt), SU gets things done on the glass. While the center grabbed ten boards against Cal, he had help from Taylor (seven), Davis (five), and Starling (five) in running up a 42-37 rebounding advantage. In fact, Taylor led the team in second half rebounds with five in just 14 minutes of play.

While the 7’4” center did not make a massive contribution on the boards, Naheem McLeod saw his first game action since January 14 against Louisville and first consequential action in a much longer span. McLeod set a season high in playing time with 8:43 of court action in a reserve role, spelling Lampkin for over four minutes in each half. The Golden Bears were an ideal team for Adrian Autry to use him, as the Cal bigs are not perimeter players.

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