7 takeaways from Syracuse's 80-75 loss to Boston College

Syracuse dropped a conference game on the road on Tuesday, losing to Boston College, 80-75.

Here are the key takeaways from the loss.

J.J. Starling took a rough fall late in the first half. BC’s Mason Madsen faked a shot in the corner and Starling came racing out to contest. When Madsen drove the baseline, Starling collided with him and flipped over, landing on his head. Starling was able to walk off the court and seen smiling while talking to a member of the training staff on the bench shortly after, then was able to start the second half.

When the Eagles scored the first seven points of the second half to make it a 44-30 game, head coach Adrian Autry went to his one move: removing Chris Bell and Justin Taylor for Quadir Copeland and Benny Williams. While going to his reserve forwards is a move to gain defense and athleticism to go uptempo, it seems counterintuitive to remove two of the team’s few perimeter shooters when facing a double-digit deficit.

The personnel swap worked out well, as the SU quintet outscored Boston College over the next nine minutes, 23-12. That work trimmed the Eagle lead down to 56-53 with 8:51 to play. Copeland had four points, four assists, two rebounds, and a steal in that span while Williams had two points, three boards, an assist, and a steal.

This offense still does very little to set up its 3-point shooters, Bell and Taylor. Taylor does not have a 3-point attempt in the last three games combined and last made a trey against Pittsburgh. He had two 3’s in that game off easy actions where a driver drew Taylor’s defender for one step and passed to him for the shot. He has not had an open look created for him since.

Bell does not have much of an issue getting 3’s up (he averages one attempt every 4.02 minutes on the season), but is still primarily a stationary shooter located in the corner or at the break. The quick-triggered sophomore has been feast-or-famine in ACC play, registering five games in double digits and five games of five or fewer points.

While Judah Mintz has amassed 31 assists in the last four games, he also has 15 turnovers in that time. Mintz has at least four turnovers in a game ten times on the season, including in each of the last three outings, and a 1.45-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio on the season.

Peter Carey, Kyle Cuffe, and Mounir Hima all got spot minutes in the first half, but nothing in the second half. The rotation has been tightened again, essentially down to seven players with Copeland and Williams the only players guaranteed to play meaningful minutes off the bench.

Cuffe provides a couple spot minutes in the first half for the starting guards and occasionally some looks in a three-guard lineup if the forwards are struggling. Carey is good for a few minutes of play to protect Brown from foul trouble in the first half and some spot duty in the second half if the Orange have some breathing room.

Boston College scored on 51.4 percent of their possessions and committed turnovers on 30 percent of them. This game could have been much uglier had the Eagles not been so sloppy with the ball.

The Orange (14-7, 5-5 ACC) wrap up their week on the road on Saturday night when they face Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons (13-6, 5-3 ACC) had a nine-game win streak from late November into January, but have dropped three of their last five games and will play at Pittsburgh on Wednesday night before SU visits them.

Wake has a high-powered offense that averages over 80 points per outing featuring four players averaging at least 14.3 points per game and making 20 3’s on the season at a 35 percent or better clip. Hunter Sallis leads the way at 17.9 points per game and 42 3-pointers with Kevin Miller on his heels with a 16.8 points per game mark. Cameron Hildreth (15.0 pts/game) and Andrew Carr (14.3 pts/game) round out that offensive-minded quartet.

Saturday’s game between Syracuse and Wake Forest will tip off at 7:45 p.m. Eastern and will be televised by the CW.

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