#18/#22 Syracuse falls to unranked South Carolina at the Barclay Center Saturday Night

After defeating Holy Cross, Monmouth, and South Carolina State, the #18 Syracuse Orange Men's Basketball Team faced a Challenge as they faced the 5-0 South Carolina Gamecocks at the Barclay Center Saturday Night in the final game of the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational. 

The Orange Struggled in the first half as they were held to just 26 points and trailed 37-26 at the half. In the first half, they were 50 % in three point percentage, but struggled in Field Goal Percentage as they were 34.8 % compared to South Carolina's 50% FG. But,the Orange struggled the most defensively as they allowed South Carolina to score 14 points inside the paint going into the second half (Syracuse Orange Official Facebook).

In the Second Half, the Orange fought hard to make a comeback,  but South Carolina played aggressively on defense as they forced 17 total turnovers and had 27 total Defensive rebounds (ESPN) that gave them the overall advantage over Syracuse. South Carolina went on to win 64-50, giving the Orange their first loss of the season. Despite the Loss, the leading scorers for the Orange were Tyler Lydon with 18 points and Frank Howard and Andrew White III tied with 10 points. 

As of this morning's Associated Press NCAA Basketball Rankings, Syracuse remains in the TOP 25 with the 1 loss but falls to #22 and with the win, South Carolina enters the Rankings and is #20. 

Syracuse faces yet another big challenge as they travel to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the #17 Badgers on Tuesday Night in the ACC/ BIG TEN Challenge on ESPN. The last time Syracuse faced Wisconsin was in the 2015 ACC/ Big Ten Challenge where the Badgers won in Overtime 66-58 and out-rebounded the Orange 51-25 (Orange Hoops.org). 

Morgan R. Golliver