ATLANTA — Syracuse redshirt freshman forward Matthew Moyer was bounding through a stairwell toward the team bus when he ran into a swarm of media headed for the locker room.

He wore sweatpants and a team hoodie and AirPods. Everyone wanted to know how Moyer, who had rolled his left ankle “really bad” a week ago against Boston College and was supposed to be out for close to a month, had returned to play two minutes in a 55-51 loss for Syracuse (15-7, 4-5 Atlantic Coast) against Georgia Tech (11-11, 4-5) on Tuesday night in the McCamish Pavilion. It was two minutes — and one rebound was the only statistic attributed to his name — but he had still suited up, still moved seemingly uninhibited on the floor, still dunked in warm-ups and still played.

“I feel great,” he said. “I feel normal. I feel 100 percent back.”

A scrum of about five reporters formed around Moyer in the stairwell. Public relations staff and other reporters squeezed around the railings to get to the locker room. Moyer ignored them, at times grinning and other times serious when he mentioned recovery.

“It was swollen pretty bad,” Moyer said of the ankle. “I just worked hard. I was in the training room pretty much 24/7. They told me it was going to be four weeks, but I wasn’t having that, so I got myself back to the point where I needed to be at.

“I was calling (trainer) Brad (Pike) up every day. He let me take stuff home, things to get myself better. I did what I was supposed to do and got back.”

Moyer, who has started every game he has been healthy at the power forward spot, has played in 21 games and averages, per contest, 4.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 20.4 minutes.

Moyer practiced Tuesday before the team flew to Atlanta and seemed at full strength. He wore a small black brace on his left ankle at the practice, but he did not in the game against GT.

“Matt’s back three weeks ahead of time,” said Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim. “He’s healthy. He didn’t practice a lot, but he’s healthy.”

His roommate, sophomore guard Tyus Battle, said Moyer even completed rehab in their South Campus apartment.

“He’s doing everything he can do to get on the floor,” Battle said. “I think he’s ready to play. He’ll be ready to go.”

Published on February 1, 2018 at 12:04 am

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR