Judah Mintz scored 18 points as Syracuse overcame a slow start to post a comfortable 83-65 victory over Oregon on Sunday in a nonconference game at Sioux Falls, S.D.
Mintz rounded out his strong performance with five assists and four steals, while Quadir Copeland posted 15 points, nine boards and five assists. JJ Starling scored 14 points and Maliq Brown had 13 as the Orange (8-3) overcame 19 turnovers by shooting 56.6 percent from the field.
Led by Copeland and Brown, the Syracuse bench contributed 44 points on 18-of-24 shooting (75 percent). The Ducks’ bench totaled just 18 points on 5-of-17 shooting.
Kwame Evans scored 17 points and Jackson Shelstad added 16 for Oregon (7-3), which struggled to the tune of 4 of 27 from 3-point range (14.8 percent) as part of an overall 36.1 percent shooting performance. The Ducks also committed 19 turnovers.
The game did not get off to a good start for Syracuse, which trailed 12-3 a mere six minutes into the game. Shelstad had a layup and two 3-pointers during the early burst.
Kyle Cuffe Jr. made two 3-pointers and a dunk as the Orange rallied to take a 17-15 lead just over 11 minutes into the game. Syracuse closed the half on a 14-5 run, including five straight points from Starling.
By the time Benny Williams threw down an alley-oop in the final 30 seconds of the half, the Orange held a 33-25 cushion.
Justin Taylor began the second half with a 3-pointer to give Syracuse its first double-digit lead. Brown’s dunk midway through the half created a 57-41 lead, and then he dunked again about two minutes later to give the Orange their first 20-point advantage at 65-45.
The lead swelled to as many as 24 on Starling’s 3-pointer with 2:29 remaining.
–Field Level Media