Syracuse Basketball Closes Out Home Slate With Win Over Virginia Tech

The Orange picked up a win over the Hokies on Senior Day.

Mike McAllister | Feb 27, 2024

Syracuse Basketball Closes Out Home Slate With Win Over Virginia Tech /

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Syracuse closed out its home schedule with an 84-71 win over Virginia Tech Tuesday night in the JMA Wireless Dome. With the win, the Orange improved to 19-10 (10-8) on the season. Next up for Syracuse is back to back road games to close out the regular season, starting with Louisville on Saturday. That game tips at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast on the ACC Network.

Judah Mintz was the best player on the floor all night and the Hokies simply could no guard him. He scored 29 points on 10-17 shooting, dished out six assists and had four steals. He was not alone though as Virginia Tech struggled to keep the Orange out of the lane all night. JJ Starling added 13 points, six rebounds and five assists while Quadir Copeland has 12 points and four assists off the bench.

This was Syracuse's third win in a row and fourth in the last five games. The 19 wins is also the most in the regular season since the 2019-20 season.

The beginning of the first half was close with both teams trading runs and offensive lulls. That was when Syracuse took control with a 12-2 run that extended a slim lead to double figures. The Orange would take a 45-27 lead into halftime.

The offenses would take center stage to start the second half, with the teams trading buckets. A little mini run would allow Syracuse to extend the lead to 21 before Virginia Tech made a run midway through the half to try to get back into it. An 11-2 Hokies run trimmed the lead to 11.

Virginia Tech would trim the lead to as little as seven with under eight minutes to play. Head coach Adrian Autry would call timeout to make some defensive adjustments. The Orange would force a couple of turnovers and push the lead back to double digits immediately after that timeout. Virginia Tech would never seriously threaten the rest of the way.

Syracuse won the rebounding battle 31-27 and outscored Virginia Tech in the paint 54-50. The Orange defense held the Hokies to just 6-20 shooting from three point range. SU shot 57% from the floor overall.

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Published Feb 27, 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.