Syracuse Stops Losing Streak, Tops Notre Dame

The Syracuse Orange men's basketball squad opened the door to the Dome on a cold wintry night as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish descended upon Central New York from South Bend, Indiana.

Both teams came in with almost exactly the same overall and conference records, with Syracuse 12-9 overall and Notre Dame 11-10, along with Syracuse being 3-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Notre Dame coming in at 2-6.

Over a minute past before either team scored in this the 69th match-up between the Orange and Fighting Irish, with the initial bucket coming from freshman forward Brady Koehler on a layup at the 18:53 mark.

Syracuse answered right back on a dunk by senior forward William Kyle, III.

The Orange have held the lead in the all-time series 35-23, including winning four of the last five and splitting the two games last season (69-64 at South Bend, then 77-69 in Syracuse).

They would hold the lead in this chapter of their series with Notre Dame when senior guard J.J. Starling connected from long range at the 17:41 mark to make it 5-3 Syracuse.

Five lead changes and two ties would happen in total in the first half.

But the Orange would not trail from the 15:37 mark on in the first half; the shot that got the lead back for Syracuse at that mark came from beyond the arc by redshirt-senior guard Nate Kingz that made it 10-8 Orange.

At the break, Syracuse led 40-31. Starling had almost half of Syracuse's first-half points, with 17.

Kingz was the first to score in the second half for either team when he made the long-range call at the 19:22 mark on the first Orange possession after halftime.

He would knock down another three at the 12:45 mark which would provoke Fighting Irish Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry to call timeout with Notre Dame down 57-44.

When the Irish fought to within two possessions on a three by sophomore guard Cole Certa at the 6:30 mark that brought the score to 66-60 Orange, Syracuse responded with a 9-0 run to get ahead 75-60.

The Orange would never trail from the 15:37 mark of the first half, a total of more than 35 of the 40 minutes.

Kingz would score 22 of his 28 points in the second half, ending the game atop all players on both sides.

With the victory, the Orange improved to 13-9, 4-5 in the ACC, while the Fighting Irish moved to 11-11 overall and 2-7 in conference play.

Syracuse's win ended their losing streak at four games before heading on the road for games against the North Carolina Tar Heels on February 2nd and the Virginia Cavaliers on February 7th.