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Momentum in sports can’t be calculated by a single statistic. Jyáre Davis knows that. But he thinks anyone who doesn’t believe it exists is crazy.

Look no further than Syracuse’s performance against Notre Dame to prove Davis’ theory. The Orange looked dead and buried in the first half, trailing by as many as 17 points. They were getting played off their home floor and were on their way to a second embarrassing home loss of the week.

They didn’t need the momentum to tip slightly in their favor. They needed a complete 180. How does that happen? According to Davis’ hypothesis, momentum starts when your team does the little things.

“If you just watch the way that teams are impacted by positive or negative plays, or by hustle plays or by the crowd being a part of it, you’ll see that, of course, momentum is real,” Davis said.

Davis felt Syracuse (9-9, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) did the right things to get momentum on its side in the second half. It’s how the Orange completely flipped the script on Notre Dame (8-10, 2-5 Atlantic Coast) to pull off an improbable 77-69 win.

J.J. Starling was the catalyst behind SU’s comeback. The junior scored 16 of his team-high 21 points in the second half, helping cancel out Markus Burton’s game-high 28 — 22 of which came during a first-half explosion. The Orange held the Fighting Irish to an ice-cold 8-of-25 shooting in the second half, outscoring them 44-27 across the final 20 minutes.

“I just thought we showed a lot of heart,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said postgame.

The unlikely comeback was sparked by Syracuse’s finish to the first half. It started with containing a white-hot Burton. The reigning ACC Freshman of the Year didn’t play in ND’s five-point win over SU on Dec. 7 but terrorized Syracuse in the first half.

He got whatever he wanted on offense with little resistance. Every time he initiated the pick-and-roll, he was either getting an open jump shot or going untouched to the basket. He had 22 points in the first 15 minutes. Syracuse had 21, and the Orange trailed by 17. Though, the deficit didn’t give Syracuse time to pout.

“If you look at it as, ‘Oh, we’re down 17,’ then you’re gonna start making more mistakes. You’re gonna start getting in your head,” Starling said. “I just kept playing. And I know my teammates, they just kept playing, and that’s what we needed to do.”

It could’ve been easy for Starling, coming off his worst performance in a Syracuse uniform — a four-point, 1-for-7 display against Louisville — to tap out. SU’s leading scorer had zero points at halftime on 0-of-4 shooting. He was seeing double teams off every ball screen, forcing him to give up the ball. Yet in the second half, Starling made sure his performance Saturday wasn’t a sequel to Tuesday.

Surprisingly, the Orange were well within striking distance. Notre Dame went the final 4:55 without a field goal, and Syracuse cut the deficit to 42-33.

Autry mentioned postgame that part of his pregame message pertained to making choices about how to impact the game. He acknowledged that Syracuse didn’t start making those choices until 10 minutes into the game. But once it did, the game flipped.

Notre Dame’s cold streak continued into the second half. Starling canned a corner 3 to cap off a 7-0 run and send the JMA Wireless Crowd into delirium less than four minutes after the break.

“(It) was big time because we could have easily given up, but I’m very proud of this group of guys,” Starling said. “We just kept fighting, and we didn’t lay down.”

The run could’ve turned into an avalanche, but Notre Dame weathered the storm. Its lead was as big as eight following a Matt Allocco jumper with 12:41 left, and it never got under four. Until Starling drove to the basket to convert through contact to make it 60-57 with 6:25 left.

A couple possessions later, he was fouled on a 3-pointer. Syracuse was only 21-of-34 from the charity stripe, but Starling hit all three to tie the game for the first time since the opening tip.

Starling’s success came with him being placed off the ball more in the second half. With Jaquan Carlos relegated to the bench the past three games, Starling has had to shoulder a lot of the ball-handling load. After Starling’s mishaps in the first half, Carlos saw the floor more, playing 12 of his 21 minutes after the break, which helped get Starling the ball more under the free throw line, according to Autry.

After chipping away, Syracuse grabbed its first lead on an Eddie Lampkin Jr. hook shot with 4:01 remaining. The ensuing possession, Starling maneuvered along the baseline, hitting a floater over Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry. After the bucket, Starling couldn’t help but smile at himself. It was a menacing grin — one of someone who couldn’t be stopped.

“It (was) just me having fun. When I’m having fun, there’s no thought process behind anything I’m doing. I’m just playing freely, playing aggressive, playing confident. That’s what you want to do as a player,” Starling said.

Notre Dame had one last gasp in the final minute. Down two, it called timeout. The play was designed for Burton — who had just one field goal in the second half — to get downhill. He received a screen from Tae but was called for a moving pick.

Starling split a pair of free throws, giving Burton one more chance, but his 3-pointer fell short in the final seconds. Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry, seemingly frustrated at the previous charge call, received a double technical foul and was thrown out of the game. Kyle Cuffe Jr. made four straight free throws to seal the deal after Micah’s blow-up.

Saturday’s win isn’t going to change anything in the grand scheme of things for Syracuse. The Orange needed a miraculous comeback to get back to .500 overall and still sit below that mark in conference play. But for a group that hasn’t had much to celebrate this season, it serves as a potential step in the right direction.

It also proved that momentum is very much real.

“You couldn’t tell whatever our record was,” Autry said. “These guys came out here, they played hard, they played tough and that’s how it has to be going forward.”

Published on January 18, 2025 at 6:36 pm

Contact Zak: zakwolf784254@gmail.com | @ZakWolf22