Syracuse defeated Albany 102-85 at the Dome to improve their record to 5-4. The Orange, who are undefeated at home, were rolling on offense and kept a sizable lead for the majority of the game.

Here are several observations from the win.

Syracuse’s forwards combined for nine assists with Lampkin leading the way with five. For the brief stretch that UAlbany played zone, the bigs were able to quickly rotate the ball in to out to find good shots.

In the first half Donnie Freeman threw a skip pass from corner to corner to find Elijah Moore open who scored a layup. Freeman didn’t get credited for the assists but still made a play happen.

Syracuse totalled 23 assists on the night, their most all year. Autry said it was the team’s best offensive game this year.

Syracuse outrebounded UAlbany 38-27 which was appropriate considering the Great Danes went more than half the game without a player taller than 6'6". In the first half, SU had 22 rebounds, including seven on offense leading to 12 second chance points in the first half.

In the second half the Orange struggled on the defensive glass. They only had 16 rebounds and allowed the Great Danes seven offensive rebounds.

In the second half, UAlbany were able to collect a third of their misses, which contributed to a tighter game. Syracuse led by as much as 22 but due to bad rebounding and good shooting by the Great Danes, the lead was closer to 12 for most of the second half.

Autry singled out Jyare Davis who only had two rebounds the entire game.

“Jyare is an unbelievable rebounder; I thought he had a couple he just watched at the end,” Autry said. “I told him, ‘you’re one of the best rebounders out there you gotta go get that.’”

Syracuse is the third best defensive rebounding team in the ACC so far but were below their average today. It will be an interesting statistic to monitor.

Jaquan Carlos had by far his best game for the Orange so far recording a double-double with 12 points and 12 assists. Before today, he hadn’t reached double digits in either statistic. Carlos was assertive in early offense, running several quick pick-and-rolls with Lampkin that ended with layups. Carlos helped the offense seemingly score at will in the second half where they shot 73.1 percent from the field.

Autry has been impressed with the way Carlos has played since Starling has been out. Carlos has played all but 10 minutes in the three games Starling has missed.

“He’s had his ups and downs," Autry said. "I think the last two games, he's really started to shift trying to continue to hold this team together till we get JJ [Starling] back."

After going 0-9 from 3 against Notre Dame, Syracuse was able to find the bottom of the net six times UAlbany. The first two both came from the right corner via Kyle Cuffe Jr. and the last four all came from Donnie Freeman near the top of the key.

However, the long range struggles continued for everyone else as Chris Bell and Lucas Taylor were 0-3, Elijah Moore was 0-2 and Carlos missed his only attempt. Syracuse is shooting 26 percent from 3 on the year and allowing a clip around 32 percent.

The silver lining is that the Orange were excellent from the charity stripe going 16-18 after heading into the evening shooting 68 percent on the season.

Autry wants his team to shoot their way out of the slump saying they should’ve had more than 15 attempts tonight and 9 attempts in South Bend.

“I think we probably gotta take a couple more [3’s] just to give ourselves a chance,” Autry said. “We talked about giving ourselves a chance to make some more 3s and take some more 3s.”

Syracuse had nine different players spend more than 10 minutes on the floor and each one of them contributed to the win.

· Chris Bell drew six fouls and made all his free throws.

· Jyare Davis was perfect from the field with 15 points on seven shots.

· Eddie Lampkin had five assists and eight rebounds.

· Carlos had 12 assists and 12 points.

· Elijah Moore had three impressive assists and had the highest plus/minus (+24).

· Freeman had 24 points with four 3’s and only missed three shots.

· Majstrorovic had five rebounds and six points in only 14 minutes. He also played good defense in the paint.

· Cuffe gave a spark off the bench in the first half scoring ten points in his first five minutes without missing a shot.

· Lucas Taylor had a key and-1 to stop UAlbany’s run in the second half.

Autry was able to flex the depth of his lineup against the Great Danes. He also said that Chance Westry who played three minutes isn’t fully fit but is slowly being integrated to the lineup.

“Being able to have that bench, and to have the ability to look down a bench and bring someone that you know, can bring something, that's a good thing to have,” Autry said. “I think that's what we got.”

----

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.