Judah Mintz leads Orange with 33-point performance
Mintz leads SU with 33-point performance
Three takeaways: Mintz delivered for a blowout win over LSU in the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge.
On a night when the lake effect was coming down in Central New York, things were also snowballing inside the JMA Wireless Dome.
Luckily, for Syracuse men’s basketball, it was in a positive manner.
After a sloppy first half, head coach Adrian Autry’s Orange outscored the LSU Tigers by 18 in the second 20 minutes to earn an 80-57 win on Tuesday night in the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge.
Syracuse’s first power conference win of the season wasn’t as straightforward as the score makes it seem, but a win against an SEC foe won’t hurt if the Orange end up on the NCAA Tournament bubble in March.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
Masterful Mintz
Syracuse’s star guard Judah Mintz had 29 points with 15:51 remaining in the game. That should tell you all you need to know.
Mintz finished the night with a game-high 33 points on 9-for-16 from the field, a 2-for-2 effort from beyond the arc, and a 13-for-15 performance from the foul line.
Mintz did the things he does best: getting into the lane and drawing fouls. After scoring five early points from the floor, the guard scored his next 10 from the charity stripe, with the whistle seeming to blow any time he drove into the lane.
When Syracuse’s offense stagnated toward the end of the first half, Mintz was the only answer. In about a 10-minute span — from the six-minute mark in the first half to just over four minutes into the second half — Mintz scored 22 of the team’s 24 points.
That basket he didn’t score? An assist to sophomore forward Maliq Brown.
While most of that work came from the free-throw line, he also produced this highlight-reel hammer, electrifying the Dome crowd.
It might not have necessarily been a good thing that Mintz needed to put the team on his back, but his scoring kept the Orange in front when they weren’t playing well and helped propel them to a big second-half run.
Ringing the Bell in the second half
Neither team did very much from three in the opening half. SU — through Mintz, sophomore forward Chris Bell and sophomore guard Justin Taylor — made a respectable 3-of-8 from range while the Tigers shot an ice-cold 1-for-12.
The Orange began to percolate in the second half while LSU couldn’t navigate the Dome’s notorious shooting sightline.
Bell led the outside charge for Syracuse, hitting 5-of-7 attempts from long range in the second half. He finished the game with 20 points and made 7-of-15 shots from the floor.
His fourth three of the half put the Orange up 66-42 with 10 minutes left and capped a 16-2 run.
SU made 8-of-13 from three in the second half, with Mintz, Taylor, and junior forward Benny Williams also getting in on the fun.
The Orange shot 11-for-21 from the three for the game while LSU shot a frigid 2-of-22.
Fighting back on the boards
Early in the game, it appeared that Syracuse was headed for another big deficit on the boards. The Tigers grabbed 12 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes and took a 26-20 advantage on the glass into the halftime break.
Then, the switch flipped.
Over the last 20 minutes, Syracuse outrebounded the Tigers 23-10 to finish with a positive rebounding margin for just the second time against a Division I opponent this season. There was a distinct difference in the effort of the two squads as the Orange grabbed nine second-half offensive boards while allowing just one.
Brown came off the bench to lead SU with 9 rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
If Syracuse can at least stay close to even in rebounding battles against power conference competition and take care of business against smaller foes, it could come a lot closer to realizing its full potential.
The Orange next play on Saturday against Virginia at Charlottesville. Tip-off is scheduled at 12 p.m.
is the Sports Lead Producer for The NewsHouse.
is a photographer for The NewsHouse.