Syracuse basketball: Orange gets the signature win they needed over Clemson

Syracuse was in a must-win scenario this weekend against a ranked opponent. But thanks to a gutsy performance from their youngest player, the Orange are one step closer to a tournament bid.

In the our latest edition of Busting Brackets Bracketology, Syracuse has fallen all the way down to the “Next 4 Out” after suffering a bad loss to Boston College. The defeat itself to the Eagles was nothing to be ashamed of, but when you’re projected to be outside the bubble, losing to a team already out is not good.

The overall resume for the Orange has been soft all year, with the team’s best wins to date being Maryland, Louisville and Miami. There hasn’t been that signature win for them all season, and despite the overall strength of the league, there’s only three teams would qualify as a “great win” at this point.

Syracuse  played two of them last week in North Carolina and Duke, but failed to beat either. And after slipping to Boston College earlier in the week, this game against Clemson was an absolute must get.

Because of how both teams plays on offense, this wasn’t going to be a blowout one way or another. The question was going to be whether this young Orange team would be able to prevail in the final minutes of this close game.

But freshman Oshae Brissett played big, scoring 17 points and going to the line a ton. Tyus Battle also had 17, but on 5/20 shooting. But it was the Orange defense that came up big, only allowing two Tigers to score more than six points, Syracuse only has a couple of scorers themselves, so it they can force to opposing team to do the same, it bodes well for their chances at a win.

Next: Teams who need a big win on Championship Week

As of this moment, the ACC Tournament seeds haven’t been decided, and there’s still a lot of work for this team to do. Two wins are probably what’s needed, but if they play the same way they did today, they got a good shot at winning them.