{"id":312751,"date":"2025-11-25T12:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/312751\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:49:07","slug":"four-takeaways-from-syracuse-basketballs-78-74-ot-loss-to-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/312751\/","title":{"rendered":"Four takeaways from Syracuse basketball\u2019s 78-74 OT loss to Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Syracuse Orange men\u2019s basketball team hung tough with the No. 3-ranked Houston Cougars before ultimately falling 78-74<\/a> in overtime from Las Vegas. On the opening night of the Player\u2019s Era Tournament, the Orange looked like it belonged against college basketball\u2019s best, all without its leading-scorer and top NBA prospect Donnie Freeman.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp both went for 26 points. Tyler Betsey led the way for Syracuse with 16 points off the bench. William Kyle had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Syracuse\u2019s usual starters all finished with double-digit scoring.<\/p>\n

Free throw struggles came back to bite the Orange in this one, having shot an unfathomable 12-29 from the charity stripe. Syracuse shot better from the floor 27-63 (43%) than it did from the line (41%).<\/p>\n

Syracuse led by as many as nine in the first half. An 11-0 run put Houston back out in front 25-23. Houston led 37-34 at the break.<\/p>\n

The second half mirrored the first to the inverse. Houston led by 11 with 3:06 left in the game but an 11-0 run by Syracuse tied the game and sent this one into overtime. JJ Starling sparked the run along with Kyle and Betsey hit a three to knot the game at 67 with 55 seconds left. Both teams had chances to take the lead late but a three by Uzan went awry and Kyle had his shot blocked to set up overtime.<\/p>\n

Ultimately Houston pulled away in extra time behind Sharp\u2019s shooting.<\/p>\n

\"LAS<\/a><\/p>\n

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 24: Kiyan Anthony #7 of the Syracuse Orange reacts in the first half against the Houston Cougars during the Players Era Basketball Championship at Grand Garden Arena on November 24, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Zach Del Bello\/Players Era\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Who had Syracuse going toe-to-toe with the No. 3 team in the country without its leading scorer?<\/p>\n

The defense held up against Houston, limiting Kelvin Sampson\u2019s club to 36% field goal shooting. The defense surrendered some open threes on the backside and Houston won the rebounding battle 49-43, but overall the defense was strong. That\u2019s a great sign for a program that\u2019s struggled to get stops in the last half-decade in the midst of a transition vis-\u00e0-vis defensive identity.<\/p>\n

This was a golden opportunity for Syracuse\u2019s NCAA Tournament r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that ultimately went begging. It won\u2019t help in the quadrant one win category, but keeping the game competitive with the No. 3 team in the country will reflect well on analytics and NET.<\/p>\n

There are no moral victories. At the same time, it\u2019s an improved result for a program that was getting run off the floor at these events by 20+ point defeats in the last two years. If nothing else, it\u2019s a good sign.<\/p>\n

The Juicing Station showed up in the first half <\/p>\n

Syracuse received significant contributions off its bench \u2014 otherwise known as The Juicing Station<\/a>. Tyler Betsey came roaring off the bench to knock down three big trifectas in the first half. Anthony scored nine points of his own. Those two combined for 20 first half points, outscoring the Cougars\u2019 bench 20-5.<\/p>\n

Those contributions slowed in the second half but Betsey had two timely buckets down the stretch, including the three that tied the game.<\/p>\n

Syracuse\u2019s bench outscored Houston\u2019s 26-7.<\/p>\n

But the rotation shortens<\/p>\n

We know Adrian Autry wants to go deep into his bench and play nine or ten guys. Acknowledging the revolving door of Syracuse injuries, the roster hasn\u2019t been at full strength at any point on the young season. The Orange was down a player without Freeman. But with the stakes high against Houston in Vegas, Autry bet on his starters and a few key bench players.<\/p>\n

Syracuse looked like a Boeheim-coached team in conference play as only seven guys played double-digit minutes. That\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Free throws matter; board woes persist<\/p>\n

Brent Axe is beating that drum. Syracuse shot better from the floor (43%) than it did at the free throw line (41%). In a game decided on slim margins, the most obvious place to look is at the charity stripe.<\/p>\n

It might be easy to select any given section box score and see how the outcome of the game could\u2019ve been different. For example, Houston grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and scored 21 second-chance points to Syracuse\u2019s 12.<\/p>\n

But if Syracuse just shoots a meager 70% from the line, that would\u2019ve been eight more points on the night. You can do the math from there on how costly those free throw misses were. This is a trend now for this team. The Orange is shooting 56% from the free throw as team, that ranks No. 364 in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Syracuse Orange men\u2019s basketball team hung tough with the No. 3-ranked Houston Cougars before ultimately falling 78-74…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99,73023],"class_list":["post-312751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports","tag-syracuse-mens-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}