Second-Half Surge Lifts Syracuse over Notre Dame, 77-69

When Syracuse Men’s Basketball lost in South Bend earlier this season, neither JJ Starling nor Notre Dame’s Markus Burton played. But in Saturday’s clash in the JMA Dome, you couldn’t miss the duo. Burton had 22 points in the first half, as his Fighting Irish led by as much as 17. The final 20 minutes, however, belonged to Starling. Syracuse’s top scorer dropped 16 of his 21 points after halftime, helping propel the Orange to a 77-69 win.

“I was not myself on Tuesday, I feel like everybody knows that,” said Starling, who only scored four points in SU’s prior loss to Louisville. “I made sure to work diligently this whole week, watching film and picking up on different reads so that Louisville didn’t happen again.”

“In the beginning of the game, he couldn’t get anywhere,” mentioned Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry of Starling, who only had six points before halftime. “We tried to keep him in the middle of the floor, but he had a lot of attention. So, we moved him off the ball. We have to have him stay aggressive no matter what. Sometimes, his shots are going to be forced. We need him to take those.”

“When he’s off the ball, it gives him a lot more energy to come off screens and really play the game we all need him to play,” said backcourt teammate Kyle Cuffe of where Starling was at his best.

While Syracuse’s star guard got off to a slow start, Burton couldn’t stop scoring. The Irish’s top player had 20 points in the first 12 minutes. After halftime, though, Burton only added six.

“We started giving him some extra attention,” said Autry of defensive adjustments made to slow the All-ACC guard. “Put some extra help on him. Kind of a spy.”

“The first half, he was getting whatever read he wanted,” added Starling of Burton. “But once we put two players to the ball, it really slowed him down. A lot of teams do that to me.”

“Even though he was scoring, they were two’s,” said Autry of the Notre Dame guard’s shot selection. “If those were three’s, their lead would’ve been a lot larger than it was in the first half. It gave us some time to fight out way back, even though he had 22 points by the break.”

Although Autry could live with Burton dominating inside the arc, Syracuse’s next opponent has a threat from outside of it. Clemson’s Chase Hunter is the best three-point shooter in the ACC at 45.5%. The guard made five of them in an overtime road win at Pitt earlier on Saturday. Tipoff between the Tigers and Orange from Clemson is Wednesday at 7:00.