The Syracuse Orange men's basketball team finished the exhibition season with a 71-58 win over Niagara on Saturday afternoon in Buffalo.

After an exhibition-opening loss to the UConn Huskies, Gerry McNamara's team defeated Siena (81-76) and Niagara to finish 2-1.

We covered the full takeaways here, but there was something that became apparent after the game in McNamara's news conference: He's a big fan of freshman point guard Ryan Moesch.

While it's easy to point fingers at the team's concerns, it would also be disingenuous to ignore the contributions of Moesch, who had nine points and six assists in 22 minutes of action. He also added three rebounds and four steals against two turnovers.

McNamara called him a "real positive" and said "every game that we've played, he's come in and changed the game."

Moesch is lightning quick with the ball in his hands, and his speed offers a contrast to the play of point guard Garwey Dual, who is more methodical at times.

Moesch, a Syracuse-area native, committed to play for McNamara at Siena, but then de-committed when McNamara got the job in Central New York.

While it's still an expectation that Dual will start when the regular season opens on Nov. 2, Moesch is certainly doing his part to earn minutes and expand his time on the floor. The thing that he doesn't have, yet, is that he's not the same caliber defender as Dual.

--Sadiq White Jr. played just seven minutes, scoring four points and picking up three fouls. After the game, McNamara said the team needs more from him on the glass. He had zero rebounds, and he had only two for the entirety of the preseason. After the UConn game, White called his effort on the glass "unacceptable," and while that was good to hear, we have to see those words put into practice moving forward.

He's too valuable to this team to not be a force on the glass. He's also too athletic to not be a force on the glass.

--It was good to see fifth-year transfer Amarri Monroe get into it more in this game. He had nine points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes. The former MAAC Player of the Year can be a big addition to the Orange once he has his full basketball conditioning about him.

The Orange will take the week off before opening the season on Nov. 2 against New Haven at the JMA Wireless Dome.