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Buddy Boeheim fielded a handoff from Marek Dolezaj one step away from the blue Carrier logo on the court named after his dad.

He rose with a Notre Dame defender’s hand in his face. As the ball rotated through the air, Jim Boeheim leaned in his chair, almost willing the deep 3 in. When it swished through, barely grazing the rim, Boeheim sat straight up, and Buddy trotted back on defense.

It was Buddy’s fifth 3-point bomb of the afternoon. It gave him a career-high 27 points — he finished with 29 — and gave Syracuse its first lead of the game on Saturday, with 7:36 to play. 

Buddy’s spectacular shot-making, along with a suffocating full-court press, lifted Syracuse to a stunning second-half run that the head coach called “one of the better comebacks I’ve had here in a long time.” SU won the second half 43 to 21, making it the biggest comeback in the program since 2005. 

“I’m still shocked by what this team did today,” Boeheim said. 

What Syracuse did was stave off the Irish (9-11, 6-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) to keep its season alive. Syracuse’s (13-6, 7-5) margin for error to reach the NCAA Tournament remains razor-thin, but a Quadrant 2 home loss may have shut the door completely. Buddy and his six 3s was the door-stopper. 

“Getting some confidence and seeing some go down, you want to take a good shot and look for your opportunities and your spots, and you know that 3s are going to help us get back in a deficit like that,” Buddy said postgame. “My teammates did a great job finding me.”

Buddy’s breakout game felt overdue. The junior led the ACC in 3-pointers made and shot 37% from deep last year but had struggled to find his rhythm in 2020-21. He missed a stretch of games due to contact tracing, and he contracted the virus later in the season during Syracuse’s late-December pause. He entered Saturday shooting 31.4% from deep, fourth-best on the team.

While it was only a matter of time before Buddy exploded offensively, it didn’t start from deep. Six of his first seven shots came from inside the arc, most of them in the paint. He backed down defenders, using his 6-foot-6 frame to bully his way to the basket and create enough space to lift and shoot. Buddy scored nine first-half points on 4-for-8 shooting.

But in the first half, Buddy was the lone bright spot offensively, and Syracuse fell behind. Notre Dame established an inside-out scoring attack that SU had no answer for. The Irish’s lead ballooned to 20. 

But when Syracuse started to build momentum, Buddy caught fire. His first of five second-half 3s came a minute after halftime from the top of the arc. He was so locked in offensively, Boeheim felt comfortable running out a lineup of Kadary Richmond, Robert Braswell, Dolezaj and Quincy Guerrier — a group that lacks in offensive creation but features plus-athletes and defenders. If Buddy could keep them afloat offensively, they could wreak havoc in the full-court trap. 

Buddy Boeheim scored 29 points on 10-for-19 shooting. Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

“A big part of it was defense, that kept us in the game,” Buddy said. “Slowing them down, and they weren’t as aggressive on defense when we made that run. Guys were just looking for me, and it felt really good to see some go down.”

As Buddy continued to scorch, Notre Dame gave him more defensive attention. Teams have tried to deny him all year, but ND was face-guarding him in the second half, even when they switched to zone. Buddy hits about half his open 3s, and it’s just a matter of creating those clean looks for him, Boeheim said. Through more motion on offense and through offensive rebounds leading to kickouts, SU did. Even when Buddy was guarded tightly, it didn’t matter. 

He sunk a deep 3 to bring Notre Dame’s lead to eight. He then caught his defender off-balance and took him to the cup, finishing on the left side of the hoop with his right hand for an and-1. A minute later, he drilled a 3 from the left wing as he fell away from a defender, simultaneously maintaining his balance and creating space. 

“When you get into a rhythm, in the second half, any space and it’s going up,” Buddy said. 

As SU’s press continued to stifle the Irish, Buddy engineered Syracuse’s comeback on the offensive end. The game-breaking 3 from the Carrier logo preceded another dagger, one that put the Orange ahead by eight. 

Overall, Buddy scored 29 points on 10-for-19 shooting, including 6-for-10 from downtown. Twenty of Syracuse’s 43 second-half points rolled off Buddy’s fingertips. He hadn’t scored 20 points since Jan. 19 against Miami, and it was just his fifth 20-point game of the season. The shooting clinic didn’t necessarily come out of nowhere, but it arrived at just the right time for SU.

Published on February 20, 2021 at 6:29 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman