SYRACUSE, N.Y. – After an emotional couple of days, Syracuse men’s basketball used great shooting from three and a goaltending call to eek out a 94-92 win over Louisville. The Orange used the fastbreak to score 33 points.
Chris Bell put on a show for the home fans going 8-10 from three and scoring a career high 30 points. He did not miss from three after his third attempt at the 12:05 mark of the first half. However, his biggest play of the game came on a game saving block that would have tied the score with less than 20 seconds left.
“Huge. Game Changing. Chris got back and made a great rundown block. He was frustrated, we both were frustrated cause I thought he left a couple of rebounds out there early in the game. But to be able to run back and this is something that we really have kind of stressed the last couple of days is really trying to get back in transition and I just thought he made a huge block,” said coach Autry.
It was a back-and-forth affair with 18 lead changes. The largest lead of the night for either team was 7 as Louisville jumped out to an early lead.
Louisville dominated the boards grabbing 19 more than Syracuse which led to 23 second chance points. In the second half Brandon Huntley-Hatfield grabbed 10 rebounds compared to the Orange securing only 11 as a team.
The final two minutes of the game was pure chaos with Skyy Clark hitting a big three that was immediately answered by a Chris Bell three with 37 seconds left. After a Judah Mintz turnover with 20 seconds left, Bell sprinted back and made the play of the game, blocking Skyy Clark’s layup. Syracuse had to make clutch free throws down the stretch going 6-8 from the charity stripe.
With five seconds left Clark got the inbound pass and drilled an off-balanced three to tie it up at 92-92. But a heads up play from Judah Mintz who inbounded it quickly up court to Quadir Copeland led to a controversial goaltending call and gave Syracuse the 94-92 win.
With the win Syracuse improved to 15-6 and 5-5 in ACC play. The Orange will be back in action on Saturday at the dome against Clemson and the returning Joe Girard III. Tip-off is scheduled for noon.