The Orange were beaten by Miami, but Anthony's rim-rattler brought the house down.
The Syracuse University men's basketball team dropped another tough contest on Saturday afternoon, this time falling to Miami 85-76 at the JMA Wireless Dome. With the loss, the Orange have dipped to 3-4 inside Atlantic Coast Conference play and they are in jeopardy of missing the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season.
Syracuse is just 12-8 overall, with 11 games still to play.
But even in frustrating times, there can be exciting moments, and SU freshman Kiyan Anthony provided one against the Hurricanes, tossing down a transition dunk which was one of the best highlights of the entire 2025-26 campaign.
Anthony creates impact
Anthony's playing time and productivity have been major sources of conversation for Syracuse fans and media over the last few weeks, and Saturday was one of his most impactful games of the season. In 21 minutes, he had 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. He also connected on 2-of-4 three-pointers. Unfortunately, he was just 1-of-4 at the foul line, but he was by far the best SU bench player, outscoring the rest of the bench by himself.
He was second to only Donnie Freeman (14) in team scoring.
What he had to say after the game:
"I think I've proven to myself and everybody that I can contribute to this team. In the ACC, like I said, just adjusting to the physicality and everything like that. But when I'm given an opportunity with 20-plus minutes, 18 minutes, stuff like that, I feel like I can produce more, and I feel like I showed that today. Just coming in, providing a spark, I think we started off 9-0 or something like that. Just providing a spark as far as me and Tyler (Betsey), trying to hit some threes, trying to make some free-throws and everything like that. I feel like we did a good job in that aspect, but we just came up short."
Anthony is averaging 9.3 points per game, but this was his first double-digit scoring effort since he had 11 against Georgia Tech on Jan. 6.
What's next
The Orange are back in action on Tuesday night at North Carolina State. The Wolfpack are 14-6 and 5-2 inside the league. The ESPN Matchup Predictor gives Syracuse just a 16.6 percent chance of winning the contest. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET and the game will be aired on ESPN U, which is a deviation from the usual ACC Network telecasts.
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