By Phillip Murray
Winston-Salem N.C–-Coming off a 60-42 win against Boston College, Syracuse looked to carry the fire into Winston-Salem Saturday afternoon. The Orange demolished the Deacons 82-55 making their home game turn into an away game. The crowd at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum looked to be an even split among Syracuse fans and Wake fans. The setting drastically changed by midway through the 3rd quarter as Wake Forest fans began piling out of the arena, leaving only Syracuse fans.
Most of the credit should go to Syracuse SG Trevor Cooney. Cooney, came out like an NBA JAM player on fire. The Syracuse guard set the tone for the fast paced aggressive play style, by hitting his first three 3 point attempts scoring The Orange’s first 11 points. Cooney had hit five 3 pointers by the 10 minute mark of the first half. The Syracuse guard had 21 points at halftime. That gave Cooney more points at halftime than he had scored in 17 of SU’s 18 games this season. He finished the half 5-of-7 from 3-point range, tying his season-high for most 3-pointers in a game. Cooney wound up with 25 points. It was his second-highest total of the season. He had 27 points against North Carolina. Syracuse roared out to a 30-11 lead by the halfway point of the first half.
Wake Forest was held and pressured throughout the entire game. The Deacons couldn’t could any momentum going due to poor shooting, being out defended by Syracuse and giving up costly turnovers.The Orange held the Demon Deacons to just 32 percent field-goal shooting. Wake Forest had plenty of open looks, especially from 3-point range, but managed to hit just two out of 20 shots from beyond the arc. The Deacons couldn’t even make a shot when Syracuse wasn’t defending them. Syracuse held Wake Forest to 27 first-half points on 8-for-24 (33 percent) shooting from the field. The Demon Deacons made just two of their 13 attempts from 3-point range.
Saturday’s loss was the worse Wake has suffered since losing to Vanderbilt 86-64 in November. Wake Forest’s 55 points were a season-low for the Demon Deacons.
After opening ACC play with four straight losses, Syracuse has now won two straight to improve to 12-7 for the season and 2-4 in the ACC. It was Syracuse’s first road win of the season. Saturday’s game at Wake Forest was the first of three consecutive road games for Syracuse. The Orange will play at No. 9 Duke on Monday and will look to carry this great momentum into that game, and then at No. 13 Virginia next Saturday. Wake Forest on the other hand fell to 10-7 overall and 1-4 in the ACC. The road does not get any better considering the Deacons have t play at (5)North Carolina on Wednesday January 20, and then (8) Miami next Saturday. Wake Forest is currently 3rd worst in the entire conference.
