Donnie Freeman had 23 points and 12 rebounds to lead host Syracuse past Cornell 82-72 on Wednesday.
Elijah Moore added a career-high 19 points off the bench for the Orange (4-2), who ended a two-game losing streak. J.J. Starling finished with 12 points but shot 3 of 17 from the floor as Syracuse won despite shooting only 41.1 percent overall.
Guy Ragland Jr. scored a team-high 17 points, one of four Big Red (4-3) players to finish in double figures. Cooper Noard and Nazir Williams each added 16 points and AK Okereke finished with 10 points in the loss.
Cornell looked good early, scoring the first 10 points of the game and taking a 17-6 lead with 11:40 left in the first half after Jacob Beccles’ three-point play. But Syracuse responded with a 20-3 run, capped by Lucas Taylor’s layup, to take a 26-20 advantage with 3:29 left.
Moore scored 13 points and Freeman added 10 to help the Orange take a 39-28 lead at the break. Noard led the Big Red with eight points in the first half.
Cornell had another quick start after halftime, going on an 8-2 run to trim their deficit to 41-38 with 17:35 left in the game on Noard’s layup. The Big Red got within 51-49 after two free throws by Okereke with 12:31 left.
But Syracuse responded with an 11-2 run, capped by Starling’s jumper with 9:14 left, to push its lead to 62-51. Williams’ jumper with 2:53 left trimmed Cornell’s deficit to 73-69 with 2:53 left but the Big Red got no closer than that the rest of the way.
The Orange committed a season-low six turnovers in the game and made 17 of 20 from the free-throw line.
–Field Level Media
