Judah Mintz’s career night carries Syracuse to victory over Monmouth
SYRACUSE, N.Y. –The Syracuse Orange were able to come away with a win versus the Monmouth Hawks behind freshman guard Judah Mintz’s career-high 24 points, which led to a final score of 86-71. Syracuse is now on a four-game winning streak.
For the Orange, this game was a tale of two halves. The one word that comes to mind for the first half: sloppy. They were out-rebounded and out-scored in the paint, which is a glaring red flag. Coach Boeheim opened up his postgame press conference with some frustration.
“We didn’t want to play tonight. Our forwards have not wanted to play this year, and if they don’t want to play, we’re not going to be very successful,” said Boeheim.
The forwards weren’t the only ones to blame for this lack of presence in the paint. At six-foot-eleven, center Jesse Edwards had difficulty establishing himself and getting into a rhythm in the first half.
“Jesse is going to get muscled like this. He still has trouble with teams that are physical and push him out, and that’s what happened,” said Boeheim about Edwards’ first half performance.
Edwards did end up finishing the game with a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He was able to step up his defense in the second half and came away with three blocks and four steals, but if the Orange want to be successful this season, Edwards has to find a way to be more physical on the block, or at least find a way to deal with teams that are.
The two bright spots for Syracuse were guard Judah Mintz and forward Benny Williams. Mintz, of course, led the team with a career-high 24 points and went 11-12 from the free throw line. His attack mindset led to a lot of drawn fouls, which was the story of the game. Syracuse shot 22-28 from the line while Monmouth went 8-10 in comparison. Three Monmouth players ended the game with four or more fouls.
The other bright spot was Benny Williams. He had a decent stat line with 13 points, five rebounds and one assist in 24 minutes played, but he was a spark for Syracuse at the start of the second half. It felt as though he was out-hustling and out-working everyone else to help his team pull away in the second half.
As for Monmouth, Jack Collins and Myles Foster were carrying the team. Guard Jack Collins finished with 20 points, going 5-13 from beyond the arc to go along with three rebounds and three assists. Collins got off to a hot start, making a couple of key three point shots to keep the game close in the first half. It seemed as though he answered every three point shot made by Syracuse’s Joe Girard III with one of his own.
Monmouth’s forward Myles Turner also turned in a good performance, finishing with 17 points, four rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes of play. Turner was efficient in the paint and was able to facilitate the ball, as shown by his team-high six assists, but he did have two turnovers as Syracuse’s Jesse Edwards stepped up his defense in the second half.
Overall, this game came down to free throws. Monmouth got into foul trouble early in the second half behind Syracuse’s Judah Mintz driving and drawing more fouls. Syracuse would shoot a total of 28 free throws, which slowed down the game, but in the end, it was the reason they were able to pull away from the Hawks. Monmouth gave Syracuse a run for their money in the first half, going into halftime only trailing by two points.
Syracuse was able to pull away in the second half and won by 15 points, but if we’re being honest, it should have been by a lot more. If Syracuse is going to be competitive later in the season with tougher competition ahead, they will need to dominate these games. That’s not what they did in this one.
Syracuse will have that opportunity on Saturday, December 17 at 3:00 p.m. as they host Cornell inside the JMA Wireless Dome.
