National Basketball Association
Syracuse 83, Colgate 55
When: 7:00 PM ET, Friday, November 11, 2016
Where: Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York
Officials:
# Brian Dorsey, # Tim Ebersole, # Patrick Harwood
Attendance:
13290
By The Sports Xchange
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Unlike the Chicago Cubs, the Colgate men's basketball team must wait at least one more year to break the longest losing streak in Division I.
Tyler Roberson scored a game-high 18 points and Frank Howard added a career-high 11 with nine assists as No. 19 Syracuse extended its winning streak over the Raiders to 51 on Friday night with an 83-55 romp in the season opener for both teams before 23,844 fans at the Carrier Dome.
Roberson, Howard, Andrew White (17 points) and John Gillon (13 points) went a combined 25 of 37 as Syracuse shot 54.8 percent (34 for 62) from the floor. Point guards Howard and Gillon combined for 15 assists with just three turnovers.
"Frank and Johnny both played really well," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who's starting his 41st year at the Orange helm. "It's important for those guys to play well; it helps everybody. It's a lot of assists out of one position, and they scored as well."
The play of Howard and Gillon was about the only thing that Boeheim was pleased about Friday. He was upset that the taller Orange didn't have more than a 46-40 edge on the boards, and he said Syracuse's offense against Colgate's zone and the Orange press were both awful.
"(The press) was so bad I wanted to keep trying it to see if it got better and it didn't," Boeheim said. "It was horrendous. It wasn't even worth saying that we pressed them. If that's the extent of what we can do with the press, you won't see it much."
The Raiders have won 45 games in the series that dates to the 1901-02 season, but none since 1962. The teams have played for 24 consecutive seasons and Syracuse leads the series, 124-45.
Malcolm Regisford led Colgate with 10 points and six rebounds, while Jordan Robertson added eight and six, respectively. Raiders coach Matt Langel said he was happy with his team's effort, but it made too many mental mistakes that the outmanned Raiders couldn't afford to make.
"We played really hard, but I could try really hard to run through that wall but there are certain things that aren't going to happen so you've got to have some team intelligence about you," Langel said. "Hopefully, that's what we can learn moving forward."
The Raiders sank three 3-pointers to grab an early 11-9 lead, but the Orange outscored Colgate 40-14 in the rest of the half to take a 49-25 lead at intermission. Syracuse finished the first half on a 12-0 run spearheaded by backup point guard Gillon, who scored 10 of the 12 points.
"I'm just being careful and listening to what coach keeps on teaching us in practice when it comes to taking care of the ball, being careful, making the smart play but not being scared, just going out and trusting our teammates to make the plays on the back end of the passes," said Gillon, a fifth-year graduate transfer from Colorado State.
Roberson notched 16 points in the first half while starting point guard Howard and Gillon combined for 12 assists and no turnovers.
"They find me when I'm open," Roberson said. "Every time today when I was open they got me the ball and that's all I can ask for."
The Orange opened the second half with a 12-3 spurt that increased Syracuse's lead to 61-28. White and Howard hit 3-pointers during that stretch and White and Roberson finished the run with dunks. The Orange won by 28 even though Tyler Lydon, the team's leading returning scorer from last season, had just two points on 1-for-6 shooting.
"Before the game I sit there and look around and we've got some pieces," Howard said. "We've got a lot of depth, from me to the freshmen to the bigs and everybody's working and contributing."
For Colgate, Friday's game was the first of several difficult non-conference tests as the Raiders get ready for the Patriot League season.
"Every time the ball goes up you try to prepare your team to win and play the best game that you can play," Langel said. "But at this time of year, you're working on yourself, whether you're playing against a guy who's going to play in the NBA or from your league."
NOTES: Syracuse sophomore F Lydon, who averaged 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as a freshman, was named to the 2017 Naismith Trophy Men's 50 College Player of the Year Preseason Watch List. ... To better last season's 13-17 record, the Raiders are counting on improvement from a pair of junior forwards who transferred to Colgate before the campaign, Jordan Swopshire (Bradley) and Tom Rivard (James Madison). ... With its deepest roster in several years, Syracuse decided to redshirt 6-foot-8 freshman F Matthew Moyer, who spent last season at South Kent (Conn.) Prep and missed practice time this summer because of a toe injury.
Top Game Performances
Colgate |
|
Syracuse |
Malcolm Regisford 10 |
Scoring |
Tyler Roberson 18 |
Will Rayman 4 |
Assists |
Franklin Howard 9 |
Dana Batt 7 |
Rebounds |
Taurean Thompson 7 |
Tom Rivard 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Tyus Battle 4 |
Sean O'Brien 2 |
Steals |
Franklin Howard 4 |
Will Rayman 1 |
Blocks |
Tyler Lydon 3 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Colgate
|
55 |
28.1 |
6-37 |
13-21 |
17 |
31 |
1 |
4 |
14 |
Syracuse
|
83 |
54.8 |
7-20 |
8-19 |
23 |
40 |
5 |
10 |
13 |