Syracuse welcomes Cornell to campus Wednesday night, attempting to continue a run of 43 straight wins against the Ivy League side.
Syracuse (3-2) returns home after losing both games of the Legends Classic to Texas and Texas Tech. Friday, the event ended with a 79-74 defeat to the Red Raiders where Texas Tech led for the final 16:22 of the second half.
J.J. Starling continued to pace the offense, outscoring everyone on the court with 27 points, including eight of the final 10 points for the Orange to cut Texas Tech’s lead down to five. Starling averages 21.4 points per game.
Despite the two defeats, head coach Adrian Autry had positives from the trip to New York, specifically on the defensive side of the ball after Syracuse allowed an average of 83 points over its first three games. That included giving up 95 points to Youngstown State in a double-overtime win on Nov. 16.
“I thought we made a jump defensively,” Autry said. “We held these two teams that are really good shooting teams … somewhere around in the 70s, and then that was a big, big, big sign. I mean, that was a big progress.”
Now they face Cornell (4-2), who hasn’t played a power conference opponent so far this season. They’re led by former Cornell graduate Jon Jaques, who moved into the head coaching role after holding multiple positions on the Big Red bench since graduating in 2010.
The Big Red play a run-and-gun style offense and average 76.8 possessions per 40 minutes, No. 30 in the country and leading the Ivy League. It’s a style of offense familiar at Cornell, despite the change in head coach.
“We’ve obviously had some success doing it, and more importantly we have a group of guys here who I think are confident and comfortable playing this way,” Jaques said.
Leading the charge is AK Okereke, who paces the team with 4.5 assists per game, adding 11.5 points and 3.7 rebounds. The forward’s passing and ability to find outlets are key for a Cornell side that doesn’t like having the ball too long.
–Field Level Media
