An 0-3 showing in Las Vegas gave coach Adrian Autry a road map of areas where the Orange need to improve.
Undoubtedly, Syracuse will want what happened Wednesday in Vegas to stay in Vegas.
Coach Adrian Autry and the Orange will never want to see another half like the one they played against Iowa State again.
Playing in a consolation game of the Players Era men’s tournament, Syracuse was beaten soundly by No. 15 Iowa State 95-64 after a runaway second half by the Cyclones. Iowa State led by one, 35-34. at the half before outscoring the Orange 60-30 after the break.
Iowa State shot 71% (22 of 31) from the field in the second half, including 6 of 11 from 3-point territory. The Cylones (7-0) scored 20 points off 10 Orange turnovers in the half and outscored them 18-2 on fast-break points.
Syracuse (4-3) hit 38.5% of its shots in the second half but was 0 of 9 from long distance.
“Our defensive pressure and intensity, and how we turned [on the] offense, I’m really proud of our guys,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said of the second half during his postgame television history.
The teams played a back-and-forth first half, and Syracuse took an 18-16 lead at the 8:53 mark on a Kiyan Anthony layup. Iowa State answered with a 12-0 run to go up by 10, but the Orange fought back immediately with a 10-0 spurt of its own to tie it back up.
Syracuse never got that close again.
Sadiq White Jr. led the Orange in scoring with 14. Tyler Betsey and J.J. Starling each added 10 points, and Betsey pulled down six rebounds to lead the team. Naithan George had six assists.
Iowa State ended with five players in double digits.
Milan Momcilovic led with 24 points, with Killyan Toure scoring 19. Josh Jefferson contributed 13 and Blake Buchanan had 12. Dominic Nelson scored 12 of the Cyclones’ 25 bench points.
The Cyclones were impressive in Las Vegas, defeating No. 14 St. John’s 83-82 and Creighton 78-60. They didn’t qualify for the tournament final four and were left to the consolation round because of a tiebreaker based on point differential.
The takeaway
It’s disheartening to go 0-3 in a tournament, but coach Adrian Autry, his staff and his team will walk away from Las Vegas learning more about what they need to do going forward if they will have any chance to compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
They played without top scorer Donnie Freeman due to injury and his return will help, but a major problem to address is team woes at the free-throw line. Heading into the game Wednesday, Syracuse had a team average of 56.2% from the line. And it cost them dearly in their first game in Las Vegas, a 78-74 loss to No. 3 Houston in which they shot 12 of 29 on free throws.
When they gather again in Syracuse, the Orange won’t have long to fix some of the woes that were exposed.
No. 17 Tennessee comes to the JMA Wireless Dome on Monday, providing another huge test for Autry and his crew.