Syracuse senior William Kyle III made a free throw with 13.8 seconds left and Sadiq White Jr. made another with 0.7 left as Syracuse upset No. 13 Tennessee 62-60 in the ACC/SEC Challenge Tuesday night.
The Syracuse fans rushed their home court at the final buzzer. It was the Orange’s first win over Tennessee since 1993, and the win halted a three-game Syracuse losing streak.
It came with plenty of drama in the final two minutes. J.J. Starling sank an elbow jumper with 2:05 remaining to put Syracuse ahead 60-56. Tennessee responded with a layup from Jaylen Carey with 1:14 left to make it a two-point game, and after a miss by Naithan George, Bishop Boswell converted after a spin in the lane to tie the game.
Syracuse called a timeout with 31.7 seconds left. Kyle got a pass in the lane and was fouled going up for a shot. He missed the first free throw — he was 4 of 10 from the line in the game — but nailed the second to put Syracuse ahead by one.
Tennessee inbounded the ball and called a timeout with 9.6 seconds remaining. Boswell inbounded the ball to Ja’Kobi Gillespie, who passed to Carey for a short jumper in the lane, but it bounced away. During the scramble for the rebound, the Volunteers were called for a foul.
Initially, there was 0.1 seconds on the clock, but after review, the officials adjusted it to 0.7 seconds. White successfully made the first free throw but missed the second. Tennessee called a timeout with 0.5 seconds remaining. Boswell threw a full-court pass to Nate Ament, who was open under the Orange basket and replay showed the shot would have counted, but it was off target.
Carey led all scorers with 22 points and added nine rebounds. The game had 12 ties and 16 lead changes. Tennessee shot 8 of 15 from the free-throw line, while Syracuse wasn’t much better at 13 of 22.
Each team started 1-for-7 from behind the arc, leading to a close, low-scoring first half. Carey had eight points in the first 10:30 to push the Vols to a 14-13 lead.
Syracuse would edge back ahead on a pair of free throws by Nate Kingz, who had a team high 19, with 4:43 left in the half and then the teams would exchange threes, one by Boswell answered by Kingz. A layup with a second left by Tyler Betsey gave Syracuse a 32-30 lead at halftime.
Kyle dominated the first part of the second half. He had two blocks sandwiched around a dunk off a lob to give the Orange a 42-34 lead with 14:51 left, the biggest lead for any team up to that point. Syracuse led by as many as nine.
–Field Level Media
