Syracuse Men’s Basketball defeats Georgia Tech for its first conference victory of the season

ADRIAN AUTRY: Before I start, you know, I want to thank the fans that came out tonight. 

CHRIS BELL: A special shout out to those guys for always supporting us, even when things aren’t going the way that we all expected them to go. 

JJ STARLING And we really push each other. And like I said, we don’t sometimes we don’t get the results. But you know, that’s life. 

CARSON FOWLER: In front of 14,000 orange faithful as you delivered in a big way, a 62 to 55 defeat of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.It’s Syracuse’s first victory in the ACC and their first win versus a Power five conference opponent this season. JJ Starling. Super impactful in this game 21 points. His second game back from injury. He played 36 minutes. Head coach Adrian Autry said he was the difference maker. 

ADRIAN AUTRY: Yeah, JJ is big time. You know he’s the best guard, one of the best guards in this league and one of the best guards in college basketball.If you followed us, you know, to the stretch without him and having him back now I think you can see the difference and see how important he is. You know for us that’s a big difference. 

EDDIE LAMPKIN JR.: The way he gets to the rack, he’s a great leader, and just being able to have him out there at all times is amazing.

CHRIS BELL: And being a facilitator running the floor, speeding up the offense, taking his own shots, being aggressive. I think he averages 20. So I mean that’s enough for itself right there. 

JJ STARLING: You know I just did what I could when I was off the court. I was, you know, getting mental reps, watching film, so I could stay ready and mentally lock down when I came back. Obviously there was a lot of outside noise. They weren’t really with us, but at the end of the day, it’s just us.

CHRIS BELL: There’s no more time or space for losing… We got to run off these next few games and just keep it going. 

ADRIAN AUTRY: You know, we got our first ACC win. And you know, it’s important for us as a team. These guys are in battle and preparing and fighting and clawing you know all year. You know we’ve dealt with different things. And these guys just keep fighting. 

CARSON FOWLER: head coach Adrian Autry and several Syracuse Orange players said the focus is blocking out the noise and carrying the momentum of this win against Georgia Tech into their game against Boston College.The priority is taking care of business in Chestnut Hill, getting another win in the ACC. Syracuse, seven and eight to this point. They’re one and three in ACC play, but they need to get out of that bottom three threshold in order to advance to the ACC tournament come Marcht. For CitrusTV sports I’m Carson Fowler.