Syracuse men\u2019s basketball (6-4, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) hosts Mercyhurst (4-7, 0-0 Northeast Conference) for its third game inside the JMA Wireless dome in six days.<\/p>\n
The Orange have little time to lick their wounds after a head-scratching, 70-69 defeat to Hofstra on Saturday \u2013 a game in which SU led within the final minute of play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t do the things that we talked about and prepared for.\u201d Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said after the loss. \u201cThere were no surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than two weeks removed from 62-60 win over then-No. 13 Tennessee, and the ensuing court storm, the Orange suffered their first home loss of the season.<\/p>\n
SU\u2019s shortcomings from Saturday were consistent with the rest of the season. The Orange had poor free throw shooting (7 misses on 16 attempts) and 3-point shooting (8 for 23 beyond the arc) against the Pride.<\/p>\n
But the Syracuse defense, which had been its calling card all season, was lackluster at best against Hofstra. Entering Saturday, Orange opponents were shooting below 30% from 3-point land, yet the Pride shot a blistering 67% from three on 18 attempts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Todd F. Michalek\/Syracuse Athletics<\/p>\n
Syracuse guard Kiyan Anthony (7, White) drives into the Hofstra defense in SU\u2019s loss Saturday<\/p>\n
Regardless of the nailbiting finish, the Orange had dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of and the Pride\u2019s 19-4 run midway through the second half proved to be crucial.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Autry reassured fans to have trust in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a good team, we will be a good team,\u201d Autry said. \u201cWe\u2019ll address what needs to be addressed and move forward and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Orange aim to put the loss behind them with a win Wednesday night against the Lakers, who are just 2-7 against Division I opponents. While a loss to Hofstra is seen as embarrassing to many, a loss to Mercyhurst could ruin the entire season.<\/p>\n
Syracuse forward Donnie Freeman is once again a game-time decision. Freeman, who has missed the last six contests, was averaging just under 18 points and over 5 rebounds per game before his injury.<\/p>\n
SU and MU tip-off on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in the dome. WAER\u2019s coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. with McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Tipoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syracuse men\u2019s basketball (6-4, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) hosts Mercyhurst (4-7, 0-0 Northeast Conference) for its third game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-63180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-erie","9":"tag-erie-headlines","10":"tag-erie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}