SYRACUSE, N.Y – In Syracuse’s first two games inside the JMA Wireless Dome in the 2025-26 season, the Orange came out with a level of energy previously unseen in the Adrian Autry era. On Tuesday night, with a 9 p.m. tip-off, Syracuse’s energy was late-arriving, if it even arrived at all.
At halftime, SU led by just three, but for much of the second half, the Orange held Monmouth at arm’s length. But it wouldn’t be a Syracuse game if it weren’t uncomfortable. The Hawks trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half, but stormed back to cut the Orange lead down to two in the final minute. But Syracuse escaped with a 78-73 win, improving to 4-0 for the first time since 2017-18.
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Jack Collins ripped the ball from Donnie Freeman under the basket, and calmly deposited a short jumper, cutting Syracuse lead to six with 1:25 left, forcing Adrian Autry to call timeout. Then, after JJ Starling went 1-for-2 from the line, Jason Rivera-Torres got in the lane for a layup, bringing Monmouth within five. Collins then hit a wing three off an SU turnover, moving within one possession.
From there, Syracuse broke Monmouth’s press, and got the ball to Freeman, who made two free throws with 25 seconds left. But the Hawks didn’t go away just yet, as Rivera-Torres drew a foul and made one-of-two, bringing it back to a three-point game. Bryce Zephir missed two free throws with ten seconds left, but Monmouth didn’t get a good shot off — just a heave by Rivera-Torres — and the Orange escaped.
To open the second half, JJ Starling scored Syracuse’s first points with an and-one layup, and followed it up with a great defensive play, blocking Jason Rivera-Torres’ driving attempt. He eventually came up with a huge triple to extend the Orange lead to ten in the final five minutes, snapping a 7-0 run that forced Autry’s first timeout. He made much more noise in the second than he did in the first, where he was very passive. On the first play of the game, Syracuse got Starling moving toward the basket, but he couldn’t sink the layup. He didn’t take another shot until the 6:36 mark in the first half.
In his return from injury, Starling finished with 11 points (4-6 from the field, but only 2-5 from the line). Nate Kingz played his best half in an Orange uniform in the final 20. He scored 10 of his 15 points in the second frame, more than doubling his previous season-high of seven. Kingz brought it on the defensive end as well, with three blocks. Donnie Freeman led the way with 18 points (12-14 from the line) and Naithan George had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 9 assists.
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William Kyle’s best sequence of the game came at an extremely important moment. With Syracuse ahead by six in the second half, he stifled Stefanos Spartalis’ post-up, then ran down the floor and was rewarded with an alley-oop from Naithan George. That came as a response to a six-point swing in Monmouth’s favor, when Kiyan Anthony missed three of four free throws from a technical foul, and then Justin Ray made an and-1 jumper. Kyle again extended the lead to double digits, answering Spartalis with an and-1 in the final three minutes of the game.
It wasn’t the only lob that George would throw. He found Sadiq White a few minutes later, extending the lead to 14 points. But that was as large as the lead would get, as Monmouth started to chip into the margin.
In the first half, the Orange started three for three from beyond the arc, with Kingz making a deep one, and George sinking two, but struggled the rest of the first half. Monmouth also started hot and cooled off, but Andrew Ball drained a trey from the left wing on the Hawks’ final half-court possession of the first half to cut the Syracuse lead back down to three.
That came after Syracuse finally opened up an eight-point lead with under three to play in the half. That edge was squandered quickly, though, as White leveled Ray on a bang-bang play off a loose ball, and Donnie Freeman earned a technical foul for his reaction. Ray made four straight free throws before the next SU possession. Ray finished with a career-high 25.
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Syracuse’s sluggish start didn’t stop the Hawks from turning the ball over, but the Orange couldn’t put a body on Monmouth on the offensive glass. The Hawks had seven offensive rebounds in the opening 20. Freeman and George each had 10 first-half points to lead Syracuse.
The Orange return to the floor in Las Vegas next week for the Players Era Invitational with matchups against Kansas and Houston, and a third team to be determined.
