LAS VEGAS — No. 3 Houston survived their opening game of the Players Era Tournament on Monday, edging Syracuse 78-74 in overtime.
Facing their first ranked opponent of the season, the Orange had to do so without leading scorer Donnie Freeman.
It was announced Monday morning, just a few hours before tipoff, that the sophomore forward would miss the entire tournament with a lower-leg injury he sustained in the win against Monmouth.
Despite missing their biggest piece for their biggest test of the season, the Orange gave the third-ranked team in the country a run for their money.
“I thought our culture gave us a chance to win this game,” head coach Red Autry said.
And that culture was evident from the start. The Orange took control early with their defensive intensity and found themselves up with a nine-point lead.
An 11-0 Houston run quickly erased Syracuse’s lead, giving the Cougars a 37-34 advantage heading into the break.
Four minutes into the second half, a Naithan George 3-pointer put Syracuse back on top. It didn’t last long; Cedric Cenac Jr. answered with a 3-pointer after J.J. Starling missed two free throws.
Down just two midway through the half, Syracuse allowed a 9-0 Houston run that created the largest deficit of the game—11 points with 4:56 remaining in regulation.
“Keep calm, keep our composure,” was the message in the huddle William Kyle said.
The Orange did just that. Down five with under two minutes left, “Let’s go Orange” chants erupted from the crowd, making the neutral-site arena feel like a home game.
Syracuse capped its 11-0 run with a Kyle dunk and a Tyler Betsy 3-pointer to force overtime.
But five extra minutes were all the Cougars needed to pull away.
Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan dominated the overtime period—Sharp scoring five of his team-high 26 points and Uzan adding six of his 26—to lift Houston to a 6-0 start.
The Orange missed a golden opportunity to take down one of the nation’s top teams, and their free-throw shooting was a major culprit. Syracuse shot just 12-for-29 (41.4%) from the line in the four-point loss.
Sadiq White started in place of Freeman, but Betsy led the Orange with 16 points off the bench.
In a matchup where many wrote Syracuse off, the performance and near upset should turn heads and raise brows.
Autry made it clear there would be no moral victories, but he praised his team’s resilience.
“We knew this was going to be a fight. We got ourselves off the ropes and we swung back. So we’ve just got to continually have that mentality moving forward,” Autry said.
Syracuse will face Kansas at 12:30 p.m. PST on Day 2 of the Players Era Festival.