UPDATED: Feb. 21, 2017 at 5:58 p.m.

ATLANTA — Tucked away in the corner of Syracuse’s locker room was its 72-year-old head coach, slouched in a chair, his head just above the back of his seat. Jim Boeheim’s purple and silver tie was ruffled, his black sport coat still on his shoulders, a look of disdain on his face.

The majority of players had already filed out of the tight quarters in the bowels of McCamish Pavilion. Assistant coaches Mike Hopkins and Gerry McNamara slowly packed up their belongings beside the head coach, while Eric Devendorf bent forward in a chair next to the locker room door, his gaze fixed on the floor in front of him.

This was Syracuse’s chance to grab not only a road win, but a road win against a team presumably neck-and-neck with itself on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Despite trailing by 13 with under eight minutes left, the Orange clawed back from double-digit deficits — just as it’s repeatedly done in the past month. SU had a chance to tie or take the lead with under 20 seconds remaining, but referee Doug Shows called Tyler Roberson for an illegal screen in front of the Syracuse bench and the last glimmer of hope for yet another miraculous comeback faded away in the Orange’s (16-12, 8-7 Atlantic Coast) 71-65 loss to Georgia Tech (16-11, 7-7) on Sunday night.

“I think we were just playing in desperation mode,” Roberson said. “That’s what we need to do from the beginning.”

If you came to see offensive fireworks shortly after the ball was tipped, you came to the wrong place. It took almost 11 minutes for both teams to reach double digits. With 9:09 left in the first half, an Andrew White jumper tied the game at 11. Taurean Thompson ignited a sluggish Syracuse offense with 14 first-half points, and White drilled a trio of 3-pointers from the same spot on the left wing in a span of 1:26 to inject some form of life into the Orange before the break.

But that sliver of offense stayed behind the locker room doors when Syracuse emerged from the tunnel to start the second half, and the Orange didn’t score its 10th point after the break until 7:14 remained in the game. By that time, Georgia Tech had turned a nine-point Syracuse lead in the first half into a double-digit cushion for itself. The Orange needed to pull yet another rabbit out of its hat.

Stephen D. Cannerelli | Syracuse Media Group

As it did against Virginia twice in the past year, and against North Carolina State earlier this season, Syracuse’s press made it a game. Every Ben Lammers mid-range jumper seemed to further squash SU’s slim hopes, but with a John Gillon corner 3-pointer the Orange’s deficit closed to only three. Tyler Lydon stole the ensuing inbounds pass, drew a foul and hit 1-of-2 free throws to cut it to two.

“Just the fact that we were playing defense, I think that was leading to offense,” Lydon said. “I thought we were able to get to the foul line and knock down shots.”

When Roberson set a ball screen for Gillon on Tadric Jackson’s left side, Shows raised his right fist, pointed at Roberson with his left pointer finger and thrust his left arm toward the other end of the court. Roberson threw both hands on his head. Frank Howard did the same. Boeheim walked toward Shows, glaring in his direction. In the next 16.6 seconds, Georgia Tech iced the game with four free throws and once and for all buried Syracuse’s comeback aspirations.

“Just dug ourselves a hole,” Boeheim said. “We fought back as hard as we could, got it back to a game where we could tie and got away. That’s what happens sometimes.”

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MORE COVERAGE

• What we learned from Syracuse’s 81-75 loss at Georgia Tech
• Fan reactions from Syracuse’s crushing loss to Georgia Tech

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It’s what has happened far too often for Syracuse this season, falling behind by double digits in the second half and requiring a herculean effort to crawl back. Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner listed off the games Syracuse has done just that, rattling off both Virginia games and last Monday’s loss to Louisville.

“No lead is safe against them,” Pastner said.

His lead emerged unscathed by the final buzzer, and it showed in a dead silent Syracuse locker room after the bout. During the game, Boeheim was animated, hands flailing, his coat ripped off and resting on the back of his seat on the bench.

After, he was nearly motionless, almost slipping out of his chair as Syracuse’s NCAA Tournament hopes slowly slip away as well.

Published on February 19, 2017 at 10:20 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman