Brooklyn, N.Y. ― The Syracuse Orange looked to be doomed from the start of its game against Texas here at Barclays Center on Thursday.
Texas scored the first nine points of the game, Syracuse missed its first five shots and the Longhorns eventually commanded a 16-point lead.
But the Orange fought its way back into the game with a strong second-half effort and even took a short-lived lead before falling 70-66 in the opening round of the Legends Classic.
After taking a 61-60 lead on JJ Starling’s cut to the basket, Syracuse did not make another shot from the field for three minutes. It was Starling again, hitting a baseline floater, but by then Texas had gone up by five points.
Texas freshman Tre Johnson sealed the game with a pair of free throws with 9 seconds left.
Syracuse trailed by three and was inbounding the ball underneath its own basket with 42 seconds remaining. But the Orange turned it over when Jaquan Carlos was looking to find Chris Bell on the inbound pass.
Starling led the Orange with 16 points, but Texas got 16 points apiece from fifth-year forward Arthur Kaluma and freshman Tre Johnson.
The loss was perhaps Syracuse’s best showing of the season. The Orange (3-1) had struggled to hold off Le Moyne, Colgate and Youngstown State in its first three games. Texas (4-1) had entered Thursday’s game as a double-digit favorite.
Syracuse will now play the loser of Thursday’s late game between Texas Tech and St. Joseph’s at 7 p.m. Friday (TV: ESPNU).
Things looked particularly bleak for Syracuse when Texas jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening minutes. Texas dominated the first half and took a 41-30 lead into the break.
Syracuse got off to a horrific start. The Orange missed its first five shots — all from 3-point range — as Texas bolted out to a 9-0 lead. The Longhorns extended their advantage to 22-8 as Syracuse continued to struggle on offense.
Syracuse slowed Texas a bit when SU coach Adrian Autry switched into a zone defense, but the Orange could never significantly cut into Texas’ margin. When the Orange got to within 27-19, Texas scored the next six points. The Longhorns led by as many as 16 points in the half, but Syracuse scored the last five points on the half, including Donnie Freeman’s 3-pointer with 5 seconds left, to account for the halftime score.
Texas wound up making 60.7% of its field-goal attempts in the first half, while Syracuse went 12-for-29 (41%). The Orange’s main trouble was from 3-point range, hitting only 3 out of 12 from beyond the arc.
Syracuse looked like a completely different team in the second half.
Eddie Lampkin scored 14 points, dished out six assists and grabbed five rebounds. He was at the heart of Syracuse’s second-half comeback. He scored seven straight points to get Syracuse back into the game.
Syracuse trailed 50-37 when Lampkin scored seven straight points. The 6-11 center finished off his personal run with a slam off a nice bounce pass from Starling to draw the Orange to within 50-44 with 13:36 remaining.
As Texas called a timeout, Lampkin celebrated by slapping hands with Carmelo and Kiyan Anthony who had jumped up from their courtside seats. In all, it was a 12-2 run by the Orange.
Then Lampkin scored on a reverse with 5:25 left to tie the game at 58-all. On SU’s next possession, Lampkin waved off a screener and powered his way to the baseline and drew a foul.
The Syracuse fans at Barclays Center chanted “Eddie! Eddie!’’ as Lampkin went to the line for a chance to give Syracuse its first lead of the game. He missed the first attempt but made the second for a 59-58 lead with 4:09 remaining.
The Orange hit just 9-of-18 attempts from the free-throw line for the game.
Syracuse would take the lead one more time at 61-60 on Starling’s driving floater with just over three minutes left, but Texas scored on its next two possessions for a 64-61 lead.
