The Anatomy of a Comeback

Three hundred and sixty four days ago, the Syracuse men's basketball team trailed by nine points to Virginia Tech with 4:02 remaining in regulation at the Carrier Dome. Four forced turnovers and a furious comeback later, the Orange and Hokies were tied at 70, until Michael Gbinije drove down the left side to just outside of the block, spun around and delivered the game-winning jumper with 0.1 seconds left.

On Tuesday, Syracuse trailed by seven with 1:30 to play and a ratcheted-up intensity on defense, plus a few key baskets, once again allowed Gbinije to play hero – albeit this time from nearly 20 feet further away from the basket.

After freshman Malachi Richardson and Tyler Lydon each scored in the waning moments, Gbinije drilled a 3-pointer from four steps behind the arc to knot the game at 56 with 34 seconds remaining.

"At that point, I was just trying to get the best available shot," Gbinije said. "I felt that if I came off a screen that they probably would have trapped it and I just saw an opportunity with that shot and took it."

Still without holding a lead for any point in the contest, the teams headed for overtime, where Gbinije gave Syracuse its first advantage of the entire game on the opening possession. Trevor Cooney and Richardson each drained clutch threes, with a Lydon dunk in between in three-straight possessions to put the game out of reach, allowing Syracuse to obtain it's second-straight late-game comeback over the Hokies nearly a year to the day from last year's triumph.

"I remember hitting the shot from last year that put us ahead," Gbinije said. "It's tough, I've been on both sides of winning and losing that way, but that game from last year reminds me that we can always comeback and we proved it again tonight."

There are parallels that can be drawn from each contest, with head coach Jim Boeheim saying that it's the Orange defense that carried them through the comeback once again.

"We let them shoot 50-percent in the first half, 45-percent from the 3-point line," Boeheim said. "The difference was in the second half they shot 34 percent from the field and 20-percent from the 3-point line. That's defense. That's not them missing. That's us guarding them better at the end of regulation and overtime."

Richardson says it was the Orange's fight which kept 'Cuse in the contest and allowed them to pull off the late comeback.

"We definitely had to fight that whole game," Richardson said. "We weren't really making shots on the offensive end and they did a good job in the first half, but I think defensively we did a much better job in the second half. We just needed to get some stops and make some baskets and we got it done tonight. Mike definitely carried us with that big shot , Lydon came in and played huge in the middle and we were able to get it done."

The thought process was the same as it was last year for the Orange, when Gbinije credited the win to the Orange's scrappiness.

"It's just a scratch and claw mentality," Gbinije said after the 2015 win. "We definitely needed it to win the game. When we started to press them we began to force some turnovers and it got us baskets on the offensive end."

One year later and it's the same story for the Orange against the Hokies in the Carrier Dome, where events repeat themselves on Groundhog's Day and the Orange win in thrilling fashion, this time 68-60 in overtime.

Syracuse University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Trevor Cooney

Michael Gbinije

Tyler Lydon

Malachi Richardson

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