The sloppy performances — the wins in which Syracuse barely scrapes by — are blending together for SU head coach Jim Boeheim.

‘Sooner or later, teams are going to make shots,’ Boeheim said. ‘(William & Mary) is a very good shooting team. I thought our defense was better in some ways tonight than it has been. But sooner or later, teams are going to make shots.’

Sunday, William & Mary made shots. And it almost sent SU to a wake-up call of a loss in non-conference play. Despite trailing with as little as 2:38 left in the contest, No. 10 Syracuse (4-0) held on late in a 63-60 victory over the Tribe (0-3) in front of 17,933 inside the Carrier Dome.

But the win once again left Boeheim with many of the same questions from the Orange’s first three victories. Again, there was poor first-half play from SU. Again, open shots weren’t made, even as they were handed to SU by the Tribe’s matchup zone. And again, many of the veterans struggled to stay consistent.

‘It’s not what you win by,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s how you play. We’re not playing good basketball. We haven’t played good basketball.’

SU looked like it might reverse its trend of poor first-half play in the opening minutes of the game. The Orange got out to leads of 12-2, 20-9 and 28-18. But scoreless droughts and carefree defense would follow all of those leads, allowing William & Mary back into the contest.

There was a near six-minute drought after the first 10-point lead. Then, the Tribe’s Quinn McDowell hit three 3-pointers in a row, two of which came from the exact same spot and drew Boeheim’s outrage. By the half, it was 32-30.

‘The shots will fall eventually,’ SU forward Kris Joseph said. ‘We’re not worried about that. And once they do start falling, that’s going to add another dynamic to our team.’

But they didn’t start falling in the second half. This time, the poor first-half play carried over into the second. A pair of alley-oop dunks looked to be the turning point early, as SU appeared the dominant team. But the Tribe wouldn’t give in, going on an 11-2 run to tie the game at 45-45. 

During that run, the Orange reverted back to its sloppy play. Scoop Jardine was rejected by the rim on a reverse layup attempt. Rick Jackson missed a close jumper. They were two of the four veterans — along with Brandon Triche and Joseph — Boeheim said need to start giving the Orange more quality minutes for SU to be successful moving forward.

‘Our veteran guys have to step up and play better,’ Boeheim said. ‘And then our other guys will go in and play OK. But we have to get those four guys playing a little better.’

This was a William & Mary team that came to the Dome off two straight 24-point losses at Virginia and Richmond. The Tribe had averaged 50.5 points per game on 36 percent shooting in those two games.

But pretty soon, the Tribe found itself ahead against a top-10 team.

‘We just let it slip,’ Jackson said. ‘We gave up some shots, some wide-open 3s. They’re a team that lives and dies by the 3. For us to be up 10 or 12 and for them to shoot 3s, they’re going to be right back into the game.’

Boeheim looked up at the scoreboard after calling timeout with 6:33 left.

William & Mary 54, Syracuse 52. He could only scratch his head. The worst statistical team his Orange has played all season had just taken the lead, this time way too close for comfort. Syracuse failed to recover immediately, and it wasn’t until the very end when this victory was secure thanks to two William & Mary mistakes.

The first came as Jack McDowell stepped out of bounds with the Tribe trailing 62-60. And after Kris Joseph made 1-of-2 free throws, a Tribe turnover finally meant a Syracuse win.

But to Boeheim, the win only meant more of the same. Little progress. More frustration. And the same state of his basketball team.

‘Right now, the reality is that we’re not a very good basketball team,’ Boeheim said. ‘Which is what I said three games ago. I don’t think I changed my mind today.’

bplogiurato@syr.edu

Published on November 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm