Syracuse, N.Y. ― Once is an upset. Twice is a streak.
The Colgate Raiders stunned Syracuse, 80-68, on Tuesday night at the JMA Wireless Dome, knocking off the Orange for the second-straight year.
Colgate beat Syracuse, 100-85, last season for the Raiders’ first win in the series since 1962. That Colgate upset snapped Syracuse’s streak of 54 consecutive wins in the series.
The last time Colgate won consecutive games in the series was between 1960 and 1962 when the Raiders won four-straight over the Orange.
On Tuesday, the Raiders returned to the Dome and hung another loss on the Orange. And this time, Colgate’s win felt less like a once-in-a-generation upset and more like a dissection.
For the second year in a row, Syracuse couldn’t stop Colgate from scoring. A year ago, Colgate went 18-for-43 on 3-pointers against Syracuse. On Tuesday, the Raiders were even better from beyond the arc, making 19 of their 38 attempts.
Colgate’s 19 3-pointers tied the record for most 3s against Syracuse. Boston College also made 19 against Syracuse in the 2019-20 season.
Colgate senior Tucker Richarson led the barrage, scoring 27 points on 9-for-14 shooting. Richardson made seven out of 11 shots from outside the 3-point line.
Freshman guard Judah Mintz scored 20 to lead Syracuse. Benny Williams, a 6-8 sophomore, added 17 points.
Colgate led by as many as 17 points in the first and took a 44-30 lead into halftime. Syracuse opened in a man-to-man defense, a departure from Jim Boeheim’s long adherence to the 2-3 zone. The Raiders bolted out to an 18-10 lead as Colgate reserve Oliver Lynch-Daniels made three 3-pointers in the early minutes.
Syracuse would switch from man-to-man to a 1-3-1 zone and then the familiar 2-3 zone. There was even a brief appearance from the Orange’s fullcourt press, but the Raiders found open 3s regardless what defense Syracuse was in.
Colgate went on runs of 11-1 and 12-2 in the first half, building a 30-18 lead midway through the half. Boeheim called three timeouts in the first half.
The Raiders actually shot the ball better from 3-point range than they did inside the arc in the first half. Colgate made 47% of its field-goal attempts in the opening half, but the Raiders were an astounding 11-for-21 (52%) from the 3-point line.
Richardson scored 19 points in the first half, drilling five of his seven shots from outside the 3-point arc.
Syracuse tried to climb back into contention in the second half, but every time the Orange started to get its offense rolling, Colgate answered with a spirit-breaking basket.
Syracuse pulled to within 12 points early in the second half and had a Joe Girard 3-pointer in the air that would have cut the margin to nine points. But Girard missed and Colgate’s Ryan Moffatt drained a 3-pointer at the other end.
At the midway point of the half, Mintz brought the Dome crowd to its feet with a slick crossover move that buckled his opponent’s ankles, but once again Moffatt responded with a 3-pointer and Colgate led 62-48.
When Mintz came up with a steal and a layup to trim the Colgate lead to 68-56 with just over 7 minutes remaining, Lynch-Daniels came back with a 3-pointer followed by another triple from Braedan Smith. In the blink of an eye, the Colgate lead was back to 74-56 and some boos began to drift down from the Dome’s upper-deck.
With 3:28 left in the game and Syracuse trailing 74-58, fans began leaving the Dome in droves.
It was a sobering loss for a Syracuse team coming off the first losing season since 1969. The Orange went 16-17 last season, but there was hope that a six-player freshman class would inject the program with athleticism and defense which were lacking a year ago.
In just the second game of the season, Syracuse instead looked inexperienced and limited offensively. The inexperience showed on defense. The offense showed up in the box score. The Orange made just 38% of its field-goal attempts.
Syracuse got almost all of its points from three players. Girard, Mintz and Benny Williams combined to score 51 of the Orange’s 68 points.
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