The Syracuse Orange (4-4, 0-1) dropped their second consecutive game Saturday, losing a close one on the road 69-64 to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-5, 1-0) in the program’s first ACC game of the season.

With both teams missing their top scorers, the defensive slugfest saw the Orange trail for pretty much the entire game (only leading for a handful of seconds in the second half). Syracuse managed to keep things within an arm’s distance but ultimately couldn’t muster enough consistent offense versus the Fighting Irish. Notably, for the first time since 2014, the Orange didn’t make a single three-pointer.

Here are the key takeaways from the Orange’s first conference game of the 2024-25 season:

Attack the paint or bust

Syracuse went 0/9 on threes, getting all its points from the paint, foul line or mid-range. One of the main optimistic ways to look at the game versus Notre Dame: Donnie Freeman and Jyare Davis both gave the Orange some reliability in the scoring department for most of the game.

Freeman (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Davis (20 points, 4 rebounds) were the only two players to reach double-figures, combining for 40 (or 62.5%) of the Orange’s 64 points. Particularly in the second half, the Freeman-Davis combo was about the only thing consistently working on offense. Considering J.J. Starling remains out due to injury, that’s a combo Syracuse can at least hang its hat on.

Part of attacking the rim also included way better play from Jaquan Carlos (8 points, 4/8 shooting, 7 assists, 2 steals), who made several quality passes and fared much better being aggressive, getting more downhill and not settling for mid-rangers or standing out on the perimeter.

Unfortunately, the math simply did not work in Syracuse’s favor. Notre Dame went 8/22 from three (36%, led by Braeden Shrewsberry’s 25 points on 6/11 from downtown), and those 24 points outweighed any other advantage the Orange had — turnovers, points off turnovers and paint points).

Still figuring out the rotation

The first half and beginning of the second saw coach Adrian Autry go to several different rotation combos, ultimately settling for this five-man unit down the end: Carlos, Elijah Moore, Lucas Taylor, Davis and Freeman.

The added context is needed: you give the benefit of the doubt that it’s still early in the year. You’re also hoping Syracuse can have a more finalized rotation once Starling returns and by the time the ACC part of the calendar arrives.

At the same time, there was a lot of in-and-out with who Syracuse had on the court. Kyle Cuffe, Jr. mainly played next to Carlos and that didn’t really do much to change momentum. Chris Bell (4 points, 1/5) only got 17 minutes and was on the bench most of the second half. Ditto for Eddie Lampkin (5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists), who didn’t do much after halftime. Chance Westry saw spot minutes in both halves; Petar Majstorovic ended up with one minute on the court.

Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Eventually, Autry found his rotation to close and it’s clear he wasn’t kidding when he said after the Cornell game that he wanted his guys on the court to play with more intensity and energy. With a key stretch ahead to close out the non-conference slate, let’s hope the Notre Dame game provided some useful lessons of what to do and not do moving forward.

Sending out an SOS on the perimeter

Box score outside, it could be seen pretty much the entire game: Syracuse is super thin on perimeter creation. Is that going to continue over the course of this season?

Carlos’ improved performance is at least a decent sign that he could dish out to the Davis-Freeman combo or Lampkin around the basket and occasionally get his own shot inside. Once Starling comes back, that’ll at least jolt the scoring a little bit.

Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

Even then, someone among the guards will need to step up and give Syracuse at least something on the perimeter. Ideally, that could be Bell but he’s off to a rough start this season. Taylor provides defensive energy, but not much offense; ditto (for now) with Cuffe and Westry.

Kevin has made this suggestion before, but if Syracuse doesn’t have the consistent perimeter juice outside a healthy Starling and the occasional heat check game from Bell or Moore, the Orange are going to need to get their offense from something else. Attacking the basket like they did against Notre Dame is a good start (especially if the threes just aren’t going to happen this year), but Freeman and Davis both scoring 20 points might not be something to just count in every game (especially against those ACC forward depth charts ahead).

Whether it be changing the pace, forcing more turnovers or something else, only trying to score in the half-court will put a cap on how well Syracuse can perform in 2024-25.