Syracuse won its third straight by defeating Virginia Tech on Tuesday evening at the JMA Wireless Dome in the regular season home finale, 84-71.

Here are some key takeaways from the win.

Syracuse’s fortunes turned on its success inside.

While rolling to a 45-27 halftime lead, the Orange shot 12-of-15 on lay-ups and added a dunk while Virginia Tech was just 8-for-17 on those shots. After the break, the two teams flipped their roles, as the Hokies notched 11-of-12 lay-ups with a dunk while SU was just 3-of-8 on lay-ups as the guests pulled within 69-62.

In the final seven minutes, Syracuse reverted to its early form, going 5-of-7 on lay-ups while adding two more dunks. The Hokies had just two attempted lay-ups in the closing minutes, making just one.

The Orange posted a final 20-of-30 mark on lay-ups, with Judah Mintz handling a lot of work, cashing in on eight of ten attempts.

Part of the first half success was directly tied to SU pressing its foot down on the gas. They had 11 fast break points in the opening session, but were held without a point after halftime.

Syracuse also made hay off Virginia Tech mistakes, scoring off each of the Hokies’ six first half turnovers. The Orange converted five steals and a shot clock violation into 13 points before intermission with only four of those points coming on the break.

In the second session, SU forced just four turnovers, converting them into five more points. That was just part of their defensive struggles after intermission, as Virginia Tech rang up 33 points in a span of 18 possessions as they tore a 48-29 SU lead down to a 69-62 advantage.

Chris Bell finally had a rough night shooting the ball. Bell was 1-of-8 from long range, finishing with seven points in the game, and bypassed a couple shots as the game progressed that were open enough for him to take when he had been rolling.

Through their victory combined with Clemson defeating Pittsburgh and Florida State knocking off North Carolina State, Syracuse crept into sixth place in the ACC.

That temporarily sets up a potential conference tournament quarterfinal matchup with Virginia, who handled the Orange easily in the conference opener for both teams, but has lost three of their last four.

Syracuse (19-10, 10-8 ACC) heads back out on the road to close their regular season schedule with a pair of rematches from earlier this season, the first coming at Louisville. The Cardinals (8-19, 3-13) missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the horn when they visited the Orange on February 7, allowing the hosts to escape with a 94-92 win.

Chris Bell had eight 3’s and 30 points to lead all players for SU while Judah Mintz (21) and J.J. Starling (19) combined for 40 points in support. Skyy Clark paced the Cards with 23 points while Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Tre White both double-doubled to post a combined 36 points and 25 rebounds.

Clark, Huntley-Hatfield, and White all average between 12.4 and 13.3 points per game for Louisville, as does Mike James. The Cardinals will take a three-game losing streak with them to Duke for a Wednesday night meeting prior to hosting Syracuse.

Saturday’s contest between the Orange and Cardinals will get underway from Louisville at 8:00pm Eastern and will be televised by the ACC Network.

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