In the first of their two exhibition games running up to the start of the 2024-2025 basketball season, Syracuse took care of business, defeating Clarion at the JMA Wireless Dome, 101-73.

As evidenced by their point total, the Orange offense clicked early and often, led by J.J. Starling’s 17 points while Chris Bell and Donnie Freeman added 16 apiece and new point guard Jaquan Carlos 14 to go with ten assists against zero turnovers.

Here are the key takeaways from the exhibition matchup.

There were a couple surprises at the start of the game, as Carlos, Starling, Lucas Taylor, Petar Majstorovic, and Eddie Lampkin Jr. filled out the starting lineup for SU.

After the game, head coach Adrian Autry said there was nothing in particular to take away from the opening five, mentioning this particular group seemed to gel in practice in recent days.

An instant takeaway from the opening five was it was apparent more of an offensive system had been installed in the offseason.

That group showed more movement, screening, and passing than SU has been accustomed to utilizing than in recent seasons. The team finished with 27 assists as a group with 23 of them coming from new faces on the roster.

With an unexpected starting five, there probably is not a whole lot to read into regarding the substitution pattern, for the most part.

Freeman was the first reserve off the bench after two Majstorovic fouls and the cycling through units continued until Kyle Cuffe Jr. entered with 8:40 left in the first half.

Naheem McLeod became the 11th player to see action, coming in during the second half as Autry wanted to ease him back into things following his injury last season.

“For the most part” was a necessary qualifier, as Carlos led SU with over 31 minutes of play as either he or Starling was on the floor until the bench was cleared with under two minutes to play. Starling, however, picked up his fourth foul just four minutes into the second half and was lifted from the game. As a result, Carlos played the entire second half until Starling relieved him with 4:41 remaining. Clearly, those two are the point guards of this team.

Carlos led his teammates to their hot start, needing one second over six minutes to hand out six assists. The Orange scored 25 points in the game’s opening seven minutes, making 12-of-14 shots in that span. The squad cooled off considerably after that start, going 7-of-20 the rest of the half.

While Lampkin made one of the game’s signature plays with a slick wraparound pass to a cutting Carlos for a lay-up, the big man also created a challenging look for opponents with Bell.

Clarion was presented with a “pick your poison” option when SU posted Lampkin on the block on the same side of the floor as Bell, forcing the decision of either double-teaming the big man and leaving Bell unguarded or conceding the one-on-one opportunity to Lampkin.

Even a double-team from the weak side presents opportunities for the willing Lampkin to zip a pass to a teammate on the opposite half of the floor.

It appears that one thing Bell has added to his game is looking to pass when he drives past a defender on the close out and the defense rotates to protect the rim.

Bell hit Moore for a wide-open three in the second half on one of those opportunities.

Autry spoke postgame about how the defense needs to get better, as does the rebounding. The Orange board work was acceptable, including an improvement on the offensive glass in the second half, but there was one concerning aspect to the defense.

Before Autry handed things over to the walk-ons for the last couple minutes, Clarion shot 22-of-36 (61.1 percent) on 2-point shots. During last season, SU allowed their opponents to shoot 52.7 percent from inside the arc.

They also held their two exhibition foes to 38.9 and 37.5 percent on 2s.

It is only one game, but it is concerning.

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