Charlotte, N.C. ― The Syracuse Orange’s season ended with a thud on Tuesday with an 86-69 loss to SMU in the first round of the ACC tournament here at the Spectrum Center.
The Orange finished the season with a 15-17 record, its second losing year in a row, and it likely lowered the curtain on Adrian Autry’s coaching tenure after three seasons.
Autry’s three-year record of 49-48 and the lack of an NCAA Tournament appearance has fueled speculation over the last couple months of his future, and it also falls short of the mandate that SU athletic director John Wildhack put forth a year ago that the Orange needed to play “meaningful games in March.”
For the record books, Syracuse finished the year 15-17 overall. It’s the third losing record in the last five years for the Orange.
SMU, which avenged its 79-78 loss to Syracuse on Feb. 14 at the JMA Wireless Dome, advances to face Louisville in Wednesday’s second round of the tournament.
Syracuse, on the other hand, will head home and face an uncertain future.
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The school just introduced a new chancellor last week and is expected to announced its next athletic director within the next few days.
Following that could come a search for a new head coach.
It was no coincidence that the two players Autry had built his roster around this season had poor showings in the season-ending loss to SMU.
Donnie Freeman, the 6-9 sophomore, scored seven points on 3-for-9 shooting. He fouled out and finished with just four rebounds.
JJ Starling, the senior guard, continued to be mired in his season-ending slump. He managed just two points, making one of his six shot attempts in just 13 minutes. He scored a total of six points in SU’s last four games.
Nate Kingz would lead Syracuse with 25 points. Naithan George had six points and 11 assists, but he went 0-for-9 from 3-point range.
Syracuse trailed by one point early in the second half, but SMU went on a 28-to-8 run that included 13 straight points at one point.
The outburst took 10 minutes and gave the Mustangs a 69-48 lead.
The Orange came up short, literally and figuratively, against a bigger, stronger and more physical SMU squad. The Mustangs beat Syracuse in the lane and on the boards where they held a 44-31 edge.
On the offensive end, SMU dominated the boards, scoring 26 second-chance points to just nine for the Orange.
On the defensive end, SMU’s zone defense frustrated the Orange into 9-for-34 shooting from the 3-point arc.
Relying on All-ACC guard Boopie Miller (25 points) for outside scoring, SMU rode the inside tandem of Jaden Toombs and Samet Yigitoglu.
Toombs and Yigitoglu both had double-doubles. Tooms with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Yigitoglu with 12 points and 11 boards.
Syracuse still hasn’t made it past the ACC tournament’s quarterfinals since joining the conference in the 2013-2014 season. Syracuse has won just one conference tournament game in the last four years combined.
Syracuse was without freshman Kiyan Anthony for the second straight game. Anthony, a 6-6 freshman, was ruled out with an undisclosed lower-body injury that had also forced him to miss SU’s final regular season game against Pittsburgh on Saturday.
