Syracuse is trying to make a late push into the NCAA Tournament conversation.
At this point, though, any remaining at-large hopes seemingly would require the Orange to defeat visiting Virginia Tech when the ACC foes square off Tuesday night.
Syracuse (18-10, 9-8 ACC) enters having won two straight games, tight victories over North Carolina State and Notre Dame. The Orange have not won three in a row since closing the 2023 calendar year with five victories in a row.
Most recently, the team defeated the Fighting Irish 88-85 despite blowing most of a 29-point lead before hanging on for the win. Judah Mintz scored 21 points and Chris Bell added 18 for the Orange, who survived multiple game-tying 3-point attempts by Notre Dame in the final minute.
“We have to figure out how to keep that first half going in the second half,” coach Adrian Autry said. “I was happy that we got another win.”
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech (15-12, 7-9) enters having dropped five of its past seven games. That stretch does include a dominant 75-41 win against Virginia, but the Hokies were unable to follow up that performance as they fell to Pitt 79-64 on Saturday.
Virginia Tech shot 3-of-20 from 3-point range against the Panthers and were outrebounded 42-28. No Hokies player scored more than 10 points aside from Sean Pedulla, who poured in 26 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists.
“They were better than we were today, needless to say,” said Virginia Tech coach Mike Young, who added that “we had some great cracks at it, but I thought our lack of shot-making affected our defense a little bit. We needed to have an uptick in the second half, play better basketball.”
This is the only matchup between the teams this season. They met twice a season ago with each squad winning on its home court.
–Field Level Media