One week ago the freshman didn't even play against Virginia. On Saturday, he scored in double-figures to help the Orange beat SMU.
The Syracuse University men's basketball team earned a last-second win on Saturday against Southern Methodist (SMU) at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Trailing by one with 13 seconds to play, senior Nate Kingz drove left and hit the game winner with just seconds to spare. The Orange won 79-78 to move to 15-11 on the season and 6-7 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
While Kingz's heroics will get the deserved attention, the perseverance of freshman Kiyan Anthony can't be understated.
Just one week earlier, Anthony didn't see one minute of floor time in a loss against Virginia. On Saturday, he had 13 points off the bench, hitting two clutch threes and going 5-of-10 from the floor. He played 24 minutes.
I actually deleted Instagram and deleted Twitter for the past few days. I had a thousand text messages, thousand DMs and everything like that. So, just trying to stay away from that, trying to stay level-headed and positive thinking and everything like that. So I feel like it paid off, living in the gym. I think the past couple days, I was in the gym a lot more than I would be and lifting weights with Rob and just getting ready and staying ready and my number was called today. And it was good.
Regardless of how Anthony has played this season, he's always exhibited a maturity beyond his freshman status. That was evident in how he spoke after Saturday's win, and in his decision to take himself off social media for a period of time.
Also of note
--Donnie Freeman led the way with 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Kingz was also 5-of-11, totaling 13 points.
--Sophomore Tyler Betsey also stepped up off the bench, scoring eight points in 17 minutes. He hit two three-pointers, part of the 11 that SU hit as a team.
What's next
The Orange are headed for a brutal stretch: They will play at No. 4 Duke on Feb. 16 (Monday) before coming back home on Feb. 21 (Saturday) against No. 11 North Carolina. UNC just announced that star Caleb Wilson will be out for weeks with injury, making things slightly easier on Red Autry's team. The Orange were beaten by UNC just last week.
Syracuse has five regular season games left. They will use those five games and the ACC Tournament to try to buoy their distant NCAA Tournament hopes. The Orange haven't been to March Madness since 2020-21.
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