From the Locker Room: Judah Mintz Notre Dame Postgame

Syracuse's freshman guard discusses the Orange's comeback win.

Syracuse freshman Judah Mintz discusses the Orange's comeback win over Notre Dame in the video above.

GAME RECAP

SYRACUSE, NY — Luck of the Irish? Or luck of the Orange?

Joe Girard’s unlikely exit from the game sparked an unlikely run for the Orange. Down 56-44 with 12:54 left, Girard had to leave the floor after getting a cut around his eye.

Justin Taylor then stepped in and helped spark an exciting second half comeback for the Orange which beat Notre Dame 78-73.

With the win, the Orange improve to 12-6 overall and 5-2 in the ACC. Notre Dame drops to 9-9 overall and 1-6 in ACC play.

“The whole game swung when Joe got hurt”, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Justin came in and he made a really tough corner jumper and then a three, Judah really set him up nicely. Chris made a three over there and Judah (Mintz) found Maliq against the zone.”

Syracuse shot 52% from the field, 42% from 3-point range and 78% from the free-throw line. Notre Dame shot 46% from the field, 41% from beyond the arc and 80% from the free-throw line.

Marcus Hammond led the Irish with 18 points off the bench on 6-10 shooting from the field and 4-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

Chris Bell led the Orange with a career-high 17 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 5-8 shooting from 3-point range.

“He’s a great shooter,” Boeheim said about Bell. “He made some defensive mistakes early. When a guy is shooting a wide open three in the corner it’s usually the forward not moving properly. They made four of those. They come out more for defensive mistakes than offensive mistakes. But he can shoot the ball.

The defensive mistakes were apparent early on as the game got off to a fast start as neither team was missing. Notre Dame was patient until they got great looks. The Irish were 4-9 from deep when Boeheim called his first timeout with 12:53 left in the first half. Most of those 3-pointers were open looks from the corner.

Jesse Edwards had a clear advantage inside from the beginning as Notre Dame didn’t have the size to deal with him. He was active on the offensive glass with four offensive rebounds in the first half. Edwards finished with 13 points on 5-9 shooting, 15 rebounds and four blocks.

“Jesse was better passing out of the thing, better rebounding, he’s just got to finish better around the basket,” Boeheim said.

Once again, Maliq Brown gave the spark the Orange needed off the bench. Brown’s ability to place himself in the right spots around the basket helped Syracuse immediately. He crashed the offensive glass, got a dish from Edwards and ripped the ball away on the defensive end. Brown finished with a career-high 15 points on 7-8 shooting and six rebounds.

“He hangs around the basket, they’re worried about Jesse and Maliq gets that and finishes it if somebody misses,” Boeheim said. “They don’t pay much attention to him because he’s not a scorer but he can rebound and put the ball in the basket.”

Notre Dame showed some zone in the middle of the first half. Bell had his shot working, as he made three 3-pointers, two of which were very deep and crucial to keep Syracuse in the game as Notre Dame was up four numerous times late in the first half. Bell had 11 points at halftime to lead the Orange.

The Orange couldn’t stop the Irish late in the first, as they made triple after triple as the clock was winding down. Notre Dame was 9-18 from 3-point range in the first half. Dane Goodwin led the Irish with 10 points on 4-6 shooting from the field and 2-3 shooting from deep. Notre Dame led 40-36 at halftime.

Syracuse’s guards struggled in the first half, combining to shoot 3-13 from the field. Mintz was put in some tough situations at the end of the shot clock when he was forced to throw up a bad shot. Girard wasn’t finding the mark like he has in the previous month. He was a non-factor in the second half as well, finishing with seven points on 2-9 shooting. It’s the first time Girard had been held to single digits scoring since November 29 against Illinois.

“He was trying to do to much, too fast and not let things come to him,” Boeheim said about Girard.

Notre Dame continued to shoot well at the beginning of the second half. Nate Laszewski hit two 3-pointers and the Irish started out the half 4-6 from the field to give them a 50-42 lead with 15:34 left.

The Irish led continued to swell as the Orange traded twos with Notre Dame’s 3-pointers. The ball was rarely kept inside the zone for long for the Irish as it was sprayed out to shooters to get the lead to as big as 59-47 with 11:48 to go.

Then Girard went out and the game changed. Mintz’s playmaking started to shine against the Notre Dame zone. He found Brown and Edwards inside as well as Bell and Taylor outside. Mintz finished with 14 points on 3-9 shooting from the field and 8-10 shooting from the free-throw line. He also had eight assists to one turnover. Seven of those assists were in the second half.

“Judah played a really, really smart game when they switched to the zone, finding people and getting them the ball,” Boeheim said. “He was terrific there.”

The Orange also pressed in the second half, which sped up the game and led to Notre Dame missing some shots and cooling off from deep.

Syracuse got the deficit to 63-61 with 7:36 left in the second half and it was a close game until the end. The Orange took the lead back with 1:46 left in the second half and didn’t look back.

Mintz drove to the basket and was able to get fouled to go 5-6 from the free-throw line over the last 1:46 of the game.

“Defensively at the end, we forced a couple of clock violations and we forced a couple of really bad shots,” Boeheim said. “They missed them. That happens sometimes. It was an unbelievable effort to get back into this game. Notre Dame is a good team, we were able to make some shots down the stretch.”

Syracuse has a quick turnaround as they head down to Miami to face the Hurricanes on Monday at 7:00 p.m. on the ACC Network

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