The biggest shot of Syracuse’s young season happened with one minute left on Monday night.

The Orange was down by one point to Maryland. The two teams had gone back-and-forth the entire night, with neither side grabbing a lead larger than four points.

Then, Tyus Battle caught a pass from Frank Howard in the corner and knocked down a 3-point shot, to give SU the lead for good. After the game, Howard said that there wasn’t any specific play call made for that possession, and that the look was generated through the normal flow of the offense. Here’s how that came to be.

(All screenshots courtesy of ESPN 3)

The situation

Syracuse was throwing the ball in bounds from in front of its bench with 1:07 left on the clock. The Orange had just missed two shots in a row and had given up the lead on a 3-pointer by Kevin Huerter. Oshae Brissett nearly lost the ball on the following drive, but a UMD player who dove for the ball was out of bounds. Now, Brissett was throwing in to keep the possession going.

The first look

The ball went to Frank Howard, who stood far out on the Carrier logo, behind the right wing. Brissett fell toward the corner. Paschal Chukwu stood near the high post on the right side while Marek Dolezaj manned the low post on the left side. Tyus Battle stood squarely on the left wing.

Chukwu went up to set a screen on UMD defender Anthony Cowan, with the goal of allowing Frank Howard to penetrate toward the middle of the lane. Meanwhile, Brissett slid up toward the wing to make himself available for a kick out from Howard. As Chukwu slipped the screen, Howard drove middle, Cowan ran to cut him off and Dolezaj slid up toward the high post.

The Dagger

That initial pick and roll ended up not working though. Chukwu slipped the screen a little too early, and there was too much space between Howard and Cowan when the pick was set, allowing Cowan to recover.

Realizing that he was blocked off, Frank Howard looked toward Tyus Battle. Dolezaj also noticed that Howard was cut off. He could have continued running up to set another screen for Howard, but Howard was too far in already and the lane was already fairly clogged.

Instead, Dolezaj stopped and set a subtle off-ball screen on Darryl Morsell. Morsell was the man assigned to Battle, but he was shading off of Battle toward the middle, ready to help stop a Howard drive.

As Dolezaj set the screen, Howard released a pass toward the corner. Battle slid down and got to the corner right as the ball did. In one motion he jumped up to catch it in rhythm and falling further toward the corner from where the pass did, to create a little more room between him and Morsell. Meanwhile, Morsell was caught up on the screen. Terrapins forward Justin Jackson, who was guarding Dolezaj, didn’t help out and stayed with SU’s power forward.

Battle went up as soon as he caught the ball. By the time he was at his apex, Morsell was struggling to get back. It resulted in a clean look, a clutch 3-pointer and a win for Syracuse.

Published on November 28, 2017 at 10:13 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer