Nate Kingz scored 22 of his season-high 28 points in the second half, after J.J. Starling notched 17 of his 21 in the first, and Syracuse snapped a four-game losing streak with a 86-72 victory over visiting Notre Dame on Saturday night.
Starling and Kingz highlighted a much-needed result for the Orange (13-9, 4-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), who shot 57.1% from the field, 10 of 25 from 3-point range and recorded 21 assists.
Freshman forward Jalen Haralson had a career-high 26 points for Notre Dame (11-11, 2-7), which shot 49.1% overall but only 6 of 22 from beyond the arc, while falling to 1-7 in January.
Starling, a senior guard who averaged 11.2 points while playing his first collegiate season at Notre Dame, made all seven of his first-half field-goal attempts, including 3-of-3 from 3-point range. He hit back-to-back shots from distance to highlight an 11-0 run that put Syracuse ahead 23-12.
The Orange increased their lead to 32-19 with a little more than five minutes left in the first half, when they shot 61.5% from the floor and 6 of 12 from 3.
However, Notre Dame’s Braeden Shrewsberry (17 game points) went 3 of 4 from beyond the arc to keep his team within nine at the break.
Starling finished 9 of 13 from the field but exited in the final minute of the contest after being on the wrong end of a hard foul.
Kingz, who went 11 of 17 from the field and 5 of 10 from distance, took over in the second half.
The Irish’s Cole Certa was slapped with a technical foul at the 12:54 mark of the final half for chirping at the officials after drawing contact, but no foul, on his made 3. Syracuse scored the next five points, capped by Kingz’s 3-pointer for a 57-44 home-team advantage.
Notre Dame trailed by as many as 14 in the second half but got within 66-60 before Kingz canned another 3 to ignite a 9-0 Syracuse run.
–Field Level Media
