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Heading to Knoxville, Tennessee, Syracuse faced a daunting task against the No. 3 team in the country. The Orange had yet to play a game outside New York State and hadn’t put together a convincing win despite a relatively weak schedule.

And with leading scorer J.J. Starling ruled out indefinitely with a broken left hand mere hours ahead of tipoff against Tennessee, Syracuse’s daunting task turned into an inevitable nightmare. Still, the Orange hung around in the first half, trailing 45-35 at halftime. Though the second half proved SU never stood a chance against the Volunteers.

In its first true road game, Syracuse (4-3, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) suffered a 96-70 blowout loss to No. 3 Tennessee (8-0, 0-0 Southeastern) in the SEC/ACC Challenge. The Orange were outscored 51-35 in the second half, leading to their largest loss of the season. Trying to make its first NCAA Tournament since 2021, SU has lost all three of its Quad 1 games to begin the 2024-25 season, also falling to Texas and Texas Tech.

“This is not Syracuse basketball,” head coach Adrian Autry said postgame.

Throughout the first half, the Volunteers — who made 38% of their triples entering the game — shot 2-of-15 from 3. They finished the game 10-of-29 from deep. Tennessee forward Igor Miličić Jr. canned the first shot of the second half from long range.

Donnie Freeman answered with four of his 10 points, but Zakai Zeigler’s seventh assist led to a Cade Phillips alley-oop. Then, Chaz Lanier’s first 3-pointer forced Autry to call a timeout with SU trailing 55-39 at the 16:30 mark.

Facing KenPom’s No. 2 defense in adjusted efficiency, the Orange made just 2-of-9 shots to begin the second half. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s offense received a lift from Jordan Gainey, who scored all 12 of his points in the second half. The guard scored his first four points from inside the arc before draining two triples, extending the Volunteers’ lead to 65-43 at the 13:15 mark.

“We just fell apart,” Autry said. “We didn’t get back. We didn’t locate guys, rebounds, a couple of live ball turnovers. Again, everything in the second half is nothing to be proud of, nothing to be pleased of.”

From there, Tennessee’s offense got whatever it wanted with ease. Lanier, the Volunteers’ leading scorer, scored a game-high 26 points — 15 of which came in the second half — on 8-of-16 shooting.

Lucas Taylor started in Starling’s place, yet Elijah Moore led the Orange with a career-high 24 points in his absence, shooting 8-of-12 from the floor. The freshman played a career-high 30 minutes, building off his 19-point performance against Cornell last week.

Chris Bell was SU’s third double-digit scorer with 12 points. Outside of Moore, Bell and Freeman, Syracuse shot 10-of-24 from the field and 1-of-5 from 3.

Despite the blowout loss, the Orange started the game strong. After Eddie Lampkin Jr. scored following a Tennessee turnover to begin the game, SU forced three straight missed shots — two of which came from behind the arc.

The Volunteers’ offense was then ignited by Felix Okpara scoring on a second-chance opportunity. Syracuse conceded 13 offensive rebounds and 16 second-chance points, helping Tennessee command a 10-point halftime lead despite poor 3-point shooting.

Moore was inserted into the game after the Orange trailed 10-7 at the under-16 timeout. He made an instant impact, nailing his first two shots from the mid-range before drilling a 3. While Moore gave SU instant offense off the bench, Phillips — who scored 12 points — did the same for the Volunteers. The sophomore made his first four shots, helping Tennessee extend its lead to 24-18 midway through the first half.

The Orange called a timeout after the Volunteers scored four straight following Moore’s 3, but their struggles continued out of the timeout. Though Miličić missed a triple, Phillips tipped in a 2 for his seventh and eighth points of the night.

Zeigler then made a 3, Tennessee’s first make following seven straight misses, and was fouled. His ensuing free throw gave the Volunteers a 30-18 lead at the 8:50 mark. Buckets from Jaquan Carlos, Moore and Freeman helped cut the Orange’s deficit to 32-25.

After forcing Tennessee into a miss and a timeout, Bell’s second 3 cut SU’s lead down to 32-28 with 6:09 remaining in the half. But the Volunteers quickly answered with seven straight points, extending their lead to 39-28 just under five minutes before halftime.

Moore halted the run by going 1-of-2 from the free throw line. While the Orange had a chance to cut their deficit to seven after Bell was fouled on a 3, he missed all of his attempts from the charity stripe. Syracuse was just 3-of-10 from the line in the first half, a key factor in its 45-35 halftime deficit.

Then, the Volunteers showed why they’re among the best teams in the country. While Syracuse fared better than most teams against Tennessee, which came into the game surrendering just 54.7 points per game, its defense struggled greatly.

Autry had praised Syracuse’s defensive effort against Texas and Texas Tech, saying it was one of his biggest takeaways from the Legends Classic. Yet SU looked like a completely different team in Knoxville, surrendering a season-high 96 points.

In its second year helmed by Autry, Syracuse has looked nothing like a program worthy of returning to the NCAA Tournament. The Volunteers continued that trend Tuesday night.

“By all means, this is an unacceptable, unacceptable performance,” Autry said.

Published on December 3, 2024 at 9:48 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon