SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Syracuse Orange basketball team fell at home for the first time this season on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Hofstra Pride 70-60. After a controversial ending with fouls, non-fouls and out-of bounds calls, Syracuse dropped a buy-game in what will ultimately go down as a “bad loss” on its résumé, undoing positive momentum from the Tennessee win.
Syracuse was once again without Donnie Freeman, who missed the sixth straight game with a right leg injury.
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Syracuse (5-4) couldn’t impose its defensive will on Hofstra (8-4) as the Pride shot 26-53 from the floor and 12-28 from outside. The Orange shot 26-57 and 8-23 from outside.
Starling led Syracuse early with two buckets along with a Kingz three, but the Orange gave up three early offensive rebounds as Hofstra led 10-8 at the first media timeout. Kiyan Anthony, Tyler Betsey and Akir Souare checked in off the bench for Adrian Autry.
Starling continued to pace the Orange scoring, breaking into double-figures by the 14-minute mark. On the other end Hoftra tried to isolate Anthony, who played tough with an individual defensive stand. The Syracuse bench responded in kind with encouragement for his defense. Syracuse led 17-14 at the second media timeout after a Kyle shot was goaltended. Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton challenged the call, but it was confirmed a goaltend. The Pride lost its timeout and challenge privileges for the remainder of the game. Bryce Zephir rounded out the first half rotation.
Tyler Betsey’s first three – a wide open triple after a pump fake shook his defender – found the bottom of the net to push the lead 20-16. Then Anthony took over offensively, scoring three straight buckets in a series where Jaeden Roberts connected on back-to-back threes. It was back and forth as teams traded buckets while surrendering stops.
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Late in the half, Sadiq White was whistled for a phantom foul with no contact. A perplexed Autry demanded an explanation to an inexplicable call. Another Roberts three gave Hofstra a 32-30 lead. White started to assert himself at the end of the half, driving the ball hard. He was fouled three times and split all three pairs of free throws – the last tying the game at 32.
Syracuse held a narrow 37-36 lead at the break after a White floater fell just before the half. Hofstra was able to execute offensively, shooting 14-28 in the first half. Syracuse shot 14-30 while free throw shooting (4-9) was predictably precarious. Rebounding was even at 16.
Out of the break, Kingz connected on back-to-back triples to lift Syracuse’s lead to seven. Claxton called timeout two and half minutes into the second half.
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White finished off a lob with a dunk, but was whistled for a technical for excessive celebration. Autry embraced the freshman and spoke to him one-on-one as Betsey came in to replace him. Momentum shifted in Hoftra’s favor. The Pride came back to take the lead 48-47 as Syracuse had a pair of turnovers. Autry called timeout and inserted White back into the game.
From there, an offensive rebound and putback by Joshua DeCady followed by a triple by German Pltonikov pushed Hofstra’s lead to eight, forcing Autry to call his penultimate timeout with 10:31 remaining. Anthony stopped the bleeding with a floater in the lane and Bertsey would hit on a soft shot from the short corner to cut it to four. Hofstra would score and press, broken easily as Anthony threw a lob to Kyle for a dunk.
Hofstra’s torrid outside shooting would continue, however as Edmead drilled another three and so did Cruz Davis. The Pride led by eighth with 3:50 to play.
Down the stretch, a Kyle three point play and a Kingz corner three – following a split pair of free throws by Anthony – cut it to one with 2:20 to go. Biggie Patterson was whistled for a charge as Kyle took one on the back end of the press, but Syracuse wouldn’t yet reclaim the lead as Kingz took a shot to the mouth on a jumpball. He held a towel over his mouth and was replaced by Betsey. Kingz would not reenter the game.
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After a Kyle steal, the big man snatched an offensive rebound and was fouled. He nailed both to give the Orange a 68-67 lead with just under a minute left. The Pride wouldn’t be intimidated as Plotnikov was found wide open in the corner for three and buried it with 31.9 seconds to play.
Syracuse went into White, who was fouled and missed the first, but made the second as Hofstra led 70-69 with 18.6 seconds remaining. Hofstra, flirting with a five-second call on the inbound, threw the ball away against the Syracuse press but it was ruled off of Starling. Syracuse challenged the call and lost, giving Hofstra possession and Syracuse devoid of its final timeout.
Hofstra was whistled for a five-second call on the ensuing possession after failing to inbound the ball.
Anthony had a drive on the rim for Syracuse and had his arm grabbed on a shot attempt but no foul was called. Syracuse promptly fouled twice, but just 1.7 seconds remained. Hofstra inbounded the ball before Syracuse could foul and walked out of the JMA Wireless Dome with its second win over an ACC opponent this season.
Next up
Syracuse returns home to host Mercyhurst on Wednesday. That game tips at 7 p.m. ET from the JMA Wireless Dome and will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
