SALT LAKE CITY — The clock ran out on Syracuse’s season Thursday night, and Tyus Battle found himself at the far end of the handshake line. He put his hands to his head following what could be his final game at SU. For a moment, Oshae Brissett’s jersey covered his face. On the other end, Baylor’s players embraced near the free throw line and jumped up and down. While the Bears filed into the far tunnel for the final time, they enjoyed a moment of elation. Syracuse did not.

Long-range shooting haunted the Orange. Baylor’s 47.1 percent shooting display from deep left SU with few answers in a 78-69 season-ending loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. No. 8-seed Syracuse (20-14, 10-8 Atlantic Coast) didn’t have its senior point guard, Frank Howard, against No. 9-seed Baylor (20-13, 10-8 Big 12), and that hurt them defensively. An SU team that lost four of its last five regular-season games entered its matchup with Baylor after playing some of its best basketball all season. 

A career-high 25 points from junior forward Elijah Hughes didn’t bail out an Orange offense that didn’t get much contribution outside of Battle’s 16 points and Brissett’s 14. Only those three reached double figures for SU, and Buddy Boeheim finished 0-for-6 from the field. They couldn’t compensate for Howard’s suspension.

“Obviously, we missed him,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.” He is our point guard. I’m not going to sit here and make excuses. He isn’t here. Would we have liked to have had him? Yeah.”

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

As the arena’s Baylor fanbase rumbled in the final moments, Syracuse’s season came to a halt with no opportunity to face No. 1-seed Gonzaga on Saturday. At their lockers afterward, dirty uniforms and towels piled up. They left the court frustrated about what they perceived was a missed opportunity.

For the first time under Boeheim’s leadership, SU got to the Big Dance despite losing four nonconference games. An up-and-down team appeared to turn a corner last week at the ACC tournament, handling Pittsburgh and holding its own against No. 1 overall seed Duke. But at the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse didn’t build on the mini-runs it started, marking a relatively abrupt end to the season. It couldn’t stymie the Baylor offense, especially from deep, an issue that cropped up at times throughout the season.

“I thought we did a pretty good job offensively,” said Battle, who shot 6-for-15 with four turnovers. “We have to do a better job defensively. They got way too many 3s. It was just a tough loss.”

On Thursday night, the Orange were challenged to continue their season without Howard. Wednesday, SU Athletics announced he “will not play in the NCAA Tournament for an indefinite period of time due to a violation of athletic department policy.” Three people familiar with the situation told The Daily Orange he failed a drug test before the NCAA Tournament. Without Howard, who was coming off a career-high 28 points against Duke last Thursday, SU was without its pregame leader out of the tunnel. The player who anchors the defense from the perimeter. The player who, despite his flaws, helped lead Syracuse to the Sweet 16 last March.

“Without Frank, Tyus was out of position on defense a lot of times,” said sophomore forward Marek Dolezaj, who scored five points in 21 minutes.

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

The Orange did, however, get back their leading scorer, Battle, from a lower-back injury that sidelined him for the ACC tournament. But he badly missed an open 3-pointer late that sealed the game and didn’t assert himself at the level SU needed him to. Whether he’ll play again at SU or declare for June’s NBA Draft is unclear. He did not set a timetable on when he would decide.

The opening minute on Thursday indicated the night it would be. On Baylor’s first possession, the Bears worked the ball until the shot clock ticked toward zero. They let a deep ball fly a few feet in front of Boeheim. Swish. Boeheim crossed his arms and exhaled. The Bears hit five more 3s before the first timeout of the game, taking an 18-13 lead that prompted Boeheim to holler toward Battle: “Let’s go! Get up on them!”

At the half, Baylor led by just a point, 38-37. Hughes drilled five 3-pointers and combined with Brissett for 28 of SU’s 37 points. Another long Makai Mason 3-pointer triggered the SU coaching staff’s anger. Assistant coach Gerry McNamara jolted up and threw an air punch. Boeheim wailed his arms.

For most of the second half, both sides traded buckets. Mason, the Bears graduate transfer point guard who scored a team-high 22 points, slashed through the middle of the zone and dished to his teammates when he was restrained. Battle answered with a 3-pointer to retake the lead, 44-42, with just over 16 minutes remaining. Baylor shot right back with a 3 of its own. The Bears found room on the baseline, in the corners and in the paint. Extending the zone, Brissett said, let them find space in the corner.

“They got the ball in the middle and used the guys as passers, and we didn’t cover it as well as we needed to,” Boeheim said. “Both guards have to key it, which way they go. And that’s where our inexperience probably hurt the most because we didn’t really make the right rotations, and that’s a little bit of the inexperience of having a freshman (Buddy) out there.”

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

Down six with six minutes to play, Battle clapped his hands at the top of the key. “Let’s go, get a stop!” he said. Seconds later, Baylor’s Mario Kegler spotted up in the left corner — the place the Bears feasted all night — and drilled a 3-pointer to push the lead to nine. The clock was ticking on Syracuse’s season, and the Orange were not getting stops. With Syracuse’s chances gone and the energy leaking, the Bears wouldn’t look back.

Afterward in a quiet locker room, players bowed their heads and scrolled on their phones. Enough quality wins had comforted them on Selection Sunday, and they ended up a No. 8-seed against a team that had lost its last four games. But they said the season ended prematurely. They sputtered through the tail end of the year, dropping six of their last eight. And without Howard, Syracuse’s best perimeter defender, the Bears capitalized on outside openings.

SU didn’t answer late. Just before the clock hit 11 p.m. Mountain Time, Syracuse players cleared out of the locker room and made their way toward the exit down the long, concrete hallways — the season complete.

“It was a solid year. It just wasn’t the year I think we would have liked to have had,” Boeheim said. “I think we didn’t have the consistency from the beginning, missing Frank for a long time and then obviously at the end. So, it wasn’t the year I think it could have been.”

Published on March 22, 2019 at 12:18 am

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21