Syracuse rode a hot first half to a 77-65 victory over North Carolina State at the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday night.

Here are the key takeaways from the win.

While J.J. Starling and Chris Bell had the highlights in the first half, the Orange defense was the real star of the opening 20 minutes of play.

The Wolfpack barely shot over 20 percent in the half, including making a mere 2-of-18 2-point shots, and committed eight turnovers. Seven of those miscues were SU steals with three coming in the game’s opening 80 seconds.

How good was the Syracuse defense? It was pretty much unnoticed that the Orange missed ten straight field goal attempts in the first half, during which time the score went from 14-14 to 18-15 in favor of N.C. State.

Of course, they responded by forcing the ‘Pack to miss their last 12 attempts of the half.

Syracuse finished the game committing only nine turnovers. In their last six victories, they are averaging 9.2 turnovers per game.

Peter Carey saw a career high 9:43 of action in the game. Most notably, he was able to hold down the fort inside for several minutes after Maliq Brown picked up his second foul in the first half. Carey finished with four rebounds and pair of missed field goals while on the floor.

Having amassed 29 minutes of play while seeing action in four of the last five games, Carey is seemingly breaking into the rotation and pushing it out to nine players.

Further supporting Carey’s status as “in the rotation” is Mounir Hima once again being used in the final minute of the first half to keep Carey from picking up a third foul of his own.

With his four 3-pointers, Starling is now tied for second on the team with 23 on the season.

Mintz is up to 185 free throw attempts on the season, closer to tripling up than doubling up Quadir Copeland, who is in second place at 69.

Chris Bell has made at least three triples in eight games this season. The Orange are 7-1 when he does. Bell is 35-of-67 (52.2 percent) from 3-point range in those games and 12-of-55 (21.8 percent) otherwise.

The Orange (14-6, 5-4 ACC) take the short trip east to close their season series with Boston College. Syracuse took the first game against the Eagles (12-8, 3-6) at home on January 10 by a 69-59 margin thanks to a 14-4 finishing kick. Chris Bell had 20 points to pace SU in the win and Maliq Brown backed him with 19.

BC has dropped four of their last six games with the victories both coming against Notre Dame. Saturday afternoon, the Eagles finished the season sweep with a 61-58 road win over the Irish. Devin McGlockton led the way with 15 points, Quinten Post added ten, and three different Eagles each contributed nine.

Post, who leads Boston College in scoring, rebounding, and blocks, struggled mightily in the first matchup with Syracuse, turning the ball over seven times in a scoreless effort. Claudell Harris Jr. hit four 3’s en route to 16 points in the first meeting and McGlockton rang up 15 points while grabbing 14 rebounds in the first matchup.

Tuesday night’s action will get underway at 7:00pm Eastern and the game will be televised by the ACC Network.

----

Chat about this story and all things Syracuse and Syracuse recruiting on our premium message board, Cuse Classified!

Follow us on Twitter @TheJuiceOnline, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram @SUJuiceOnline and listen to our podcast.

Tips/questions/concerns? E-mail Recruiting Analyst Charles Kang here.

Not a subscriber to The Juice Online? Join today for access to all our premium content and message board community.