Syracuse Loses Regular Season Finale at Clemson

Orange basketball fell to the Tigers in a blow to its NCAA Tournament hopes.

Mike McAllister | Mar 5, 2024

Syracuse Loses Regular Season Finale at Clemson /

In this story:

Syracuse Orange

Syracuse basketball fell at Clemson 90-75 to close out the regular season. With the loss, the Orange fell to 20-11 (11-9). Next up for Syracuse is the ACC Tournament. The Orange will wait to see its seed and opponent as the rest of the teams round out conference play this week.

PJ Hall and Ian Schieffelin were simply to much all night long, combining for 41 points and 23 rebounds. Joe Girard added 21 points on just eight shots. The Tigers shot 56% from the floor on the night and 42% from three point range. Judah Mintz led Syracuse with 20 points. Maliq Brown had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Quadir Copeland scored 17 off the bench while Chris Bell had just seven points on 2-6 shooting.

Syracuse shot 47% from the floor overall and 36% from three point range. It was not the offense that was the issue, as the Orange could not get stops consistently all night.

Clemson jumped out on the Orange early, as its bigs dominated Syracuse inside to take an 11 point lead in the first few minutes. Syracuse, though, would not go away quietly chipping away to trim the lead to two. That is when the Tigers would take control back, ending the half on a 12-2 run to take a 12 point advantage into halftime.

Syracuse would come out on fire in the second half, making its first seven shots and trimming the lead to five with just under 12 minutes to play. That's when Joe Girard would hit a three to push the lead back to eight and bring momentum back to Clemson's side. The Orange would not get closer the rest of the night.

The lead was trimmed to nine at one point, but Girard hit another three and was fouled for a four point play. Kyle Cuffe would hit a couple of late threes to cut the lead to eight with 1:41 left, but the Tigers hit their free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

SUPPORT ALL SYRACUSE

SUBSCRIBE TO ALLSYRACUSE.COM NOW TO GET ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE INSIDER CONTENT

FREE ALL SYRACUSE NEWSLETTER TO GET THE LATEST ORANGE UPDATES SENT TO YOUR INBOX

JOIN THE ALL SYRACUSE FORUMS FOR FREE AND DISCUSS THE ORANGE WITH OTHER FANS AND OUR STAFF

Published Mar 5, 2024

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.