Syracuse Men’s Basketball loses to Stanford 70-61

Peter Elliott: Prior to Wednesday night, Syracuse men’s basketball hadn’t played a game in the state of California in more than 25 years. So, to honor that time away, Stanford got out to a 25-to-2 lead  — and never looked back. In a season full of dreadful starts, this one was the worst for SU.

The Orange clawed back in the second half, but never got close enough in a 70-to-61 loss. After the game, Jyare Davis said he knows that opening start doomed his team. But, he’s encouraged by the fight SU showed in the second half.

Jyare Davis: Scratch the first whatever — 25-to-2 [run] — and I’m sure we would’ve won this game, so I guess it’s little things like that where we’ve gotta play 40 minutes together.

Chris Bell: I feel like we had a good fight in the second half. You know, you gotta be able just to handle runs, I feel like. We didn’t do a good job of that in the first half, not containing their pressure well. We’ll get back to the gym and work on that.

Elliott: With Donnie Freeman out for his seventh consecutive game, it was up to Eddie Lampkin to match up against Maxime Reynaud, the ACC’s leading scorer and rebounder. He put up 21 points and 15 rebounds in this contest, his 17th double-double of the season. After the game, Adrian Autry said he was proud of the defensive effort. There’s just only so much you can do against a guy like Reynaud.

Adrian Autry: You don’t see guys his size in college, you see those guys at the next level. He averages 21 [points] and 12 [rebounds], so I think everyone has a game plan for him, and I think the biggest thing is you just try to make him work. He’s that good.

Elliott: So, Syracuse drops its third consecutive game to fall to 9-and-12 on the season. But the Orange aren’t going back to Central New York. They’re going to spend the rest of the week out West as it prepares to play Cal on Saturday. That’ll be another late tip out on the East Coast, a 10 p.m. start time for the folks back in Syracuse. Reporting from Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, I’m Peter Elliott, CitrusTV