For the first 37 minutes, Syracuse basketball really hung in there. Even after getting absolutely crushed on the glass 43-25 and missing 9 of their first 18 free throws, they actually held a 1-point lead with less than four minutes to play. And then the wheels fell off.
What was a close game got out of hand fast. As much as I’d love to blame the refs for some pretty terrible calls (several of the fouls on Dajuan, Gbinije’s “charge” when Robinson was still clearly moving his feet, etc), the truth is that Syracuse lost this game themselves.