Oshae Brissett caught the ball in the left corner, right in front of Boston College’s bench. Syracuse’s freshman forward had space to pull-up for 3 but instead he pump-faked and dribbled baseline. He then stepped back and knocked down a fall-away jumper.

Immediately after making the shot Brissett turned toward the Eagles bench before heading back to play defense.

“Someone said you should have shot the first one,” Brissett said about the interaction. “So I just turned around and said I can make any one.”

It seemed like any shot Syracuse put up was going in on Wednesday night. The Orange (14-6, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) exploded for its best offensive game of the season, shooting 60.4 percent from the field en route to an 81-63 victory over Boston College (13-8, 3-5) in the Carrier Dome.

“I thought the difference in this game was our offense,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “… If we hadn’t shot it very well it would have been a tie game at halftime.”

To this point in the season, Syracuse’s offensive had been debilitating. The 70 points per game entering the contest was the fourth-worst mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The field goal percentage of 42.4 was the worst mark in the league as the Orange got off to a 1-4 start in conference.

After an eight-day layoff, it seemed like things weren’t getting any better. Matthew Moyer got stuck in the paint trying to drive in with BC’s Jerome Robinson switched onto him. Moyer tried an off-balance kick out to Frank Howard, which led to an easy steal and layup for BC.

That seemed to be Syracuse’s only miscue of the night, though. The Eagles’ hot start allowed them to control the lead over the first nine minutes of the game. But after two made free throws from Ky Bowman, SU went on a 20-7 run to open-up a double-digit lead.  

Syracuse’s big three took turns leading the way, both in scoring and energy. First it was Brissett.

Two possessions after hitting the shot in front of BC’s bench, Brissett hit a 3-pointer from the wing a little higher up. He turned and roared to the Syracuse crowd behind him after making the basket. After SU forced a shot-clock violation heading into a timeout, Brissett turned and coaxed the SU students, waving his hands for them to roar louder. Through a little more than the first 10 minutes of the first half, Brissett had a quick 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

“Once he gets going, he’ll start making those shots like the step-back,” Howard Washington, who was Brissett’s teammate last season at Athlete Institute (Canada) Prep, said. “Once he knocks one down, I know they’re coming. It’s just his confidence gets so much better in his shot, and that’s when he shoots the ball at his best.”

Next up was point guard Frank Howard. In a 3:16 span Howard scored 10 straight points for the Orange, making two 3-pointers in the time frame. He got another look from deep after the second made 3-pointer, but put up a savvy pump fake to send BC guard Ky Bowman flying and stepped up to hit an in-rhythm knock-down jumper. He ended with 18 points, 16 in the first half.

Howard directed the offense well, too. Although Howard has largely excelled in a much larger role for the Orange, his 80 turnovers — fifth most in the country — were a blemish. On Wednesday, he had six assists to zero turnovers.

“I feel like everybody was fresh, that just comes with the week that we had,” Brissett said on the team’s offensive production. “And I feel like we were moving the ball a lot better today. In the first half I feel like everyone was playing for each other. We were dumping it down low, kicking it back out, just making the right plays.”

Lastly, Syracuse’s leading scorer, Tyus Battle, decided to get in on the fun. Battle, who ended the first half with nine points, finished with 24 total.

Battle had everything working for him. He knocked down two 3-pointers himself. On one play BC played him too far up so he took one hard hop-dribble and knifed through the defense for a layup. Later, when an Eagle defender tried to make sure Battle wouldn’t beat him to the rim, Battle used a hard step-back to create space and rose up for a jumper that kissed every part of the rim before falling through.

When that was too much, BC started trying to send multiple defenders at Battle while coming off screens. In midair Battle threw the ball down to a rolling Paschal Chukwu who viscously slammed it home with one hand.

Chukwu ended with 14 points and Marek Dolezaj added 12. It was the Orange’s first game with five players scoring in double figures since the win over Texas Southern on Nov. 18, the third game of the season.

“This was probably the best offensive game we’ve played all year,” Boeheim said. “By all measures.”

Published on January 24, 2018 at 9:09 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer