SYRACUSE, N.Y. — With 2.3 seconds left, Nate Kingz worked SMU’s Boopie Miller to the block and banked in the go-ahead bucket to give Syracuse the 79-78 win. It marks the first pair of back-to-back wins for the Orange in just over a month.
“The fight that these guys have shown in the last two games, I’m just so proud of them,” head coach Adrian Autry said. “We felt like this was an NCAA Tournament opportunity for us. SMU is a damn good team, and we had a chance to play them on our home court. We didn’t want to lose that opportunity.”
The Kingz-Miller matchup was one that Autry had joked with Kingz about in the week leading up to the game.
“We figured that they would be switching everything,” Autry said. “I was just joking and messing with him, but I said, ‘hey, if we get a switch on you, you think you can take Boopie to the basket?’”
“Coach, anybody that’s in front of me, and I ain’t worried about who it is, I’m going down there and I’m going to score.” Kingz responded.
Syracuse held Miller, the ACC’s sixth best scorer averaging 19.2 points per game, scoreless in the first half. Jaden Toombs and Samet Yiğitoğlu picked up his slack, combining for 18 points on 9-12 shooting by the midway point.
In the second half, Yiğitoğlu picked up his fourth foul with 11:06 left, forcing him to sit for the next six minutes. The Orange battled back from down 61-54 to lead 72-71 while he was on the bench.
“To get him out of the game was huge, because he was causing a lot of issues down there for us,” Autry said. “We knew we were going to give up some stuff to him just because of his ability to play in his size. We just wanted to keep a body on him and just fight to get him out.”
Kiyan Anthony led the second half push, scoring all of his 13 points in less than 10 minutes. Anthony played 24 minutes after seeing the floor for just 14 against California and being benched against Virginia the game prior. He said he leaned on his dad through his first real test of adversity at this level.
“I go to him about everything,” Anthony said. “He even flew up here just to work me out a couple of days and just to talk to me. He was right there by my side, and he never lost confidence in me. He’s the main guy that helped me play the way I did today.”
Kingz also finished with 13 points. He’s averaged 17.8 points per game across the last five and said a shift in his mindset has been the difference.
“You can’t play perfect every game, so I’m just going to go out there and play without trying to be perfect,” Kingz said. “I made that adjustment right before the Boston College game. I was like, I’m just going to play freely. I’m not going to think. I’m just going to go out there and be aggressive. Ever since then I’ve just been trying to attack every game with that mindset.”
Donnie Freeman led the team with 18 points and a career high four blocks. He’s now been the top scorer in 11 games this season.
The Orange has another quick turnaround against their toughest opponent of the year. They’ll play No. 4 Duke at Cameron Indoor on Monday night at 7pm.
“I think we showed that we can compete with those high-level teams,” Kiyan Anthony said. “We’ve had a bit of an inconsistent season, but I don’t feel like we’re done. We had a couple big games that we won. We had a couple big games that we could’ve won. We go to practice every day positive, and we come out here every day thinking we can win every game.”