Andrew White’s 12 missed 3s overshadow 22-point night in loss to No. 8 Louisville
Jessica Sheldon | Staff Photographer
Andrew White missed 12 of his 14 attempts from beyond the arc against UofL, his worst shooting performance of the season.
Andrew White’s 24th and final shot was his most desperate.
The fifth-year senior heaved it over two defenders from right in front of the Syracuse bench with the Orange trailing by two with under 10 seconds left in overtime. It was his chance to redeem a putrid night from behind the arc, an uncharacteristic showing from SU’s best offensive threat who had made almost more than twice as many 3s as any teammate heading into the game.
The ball floated high in the air, potentially another dramatic Syracuse upset on the other end of its arc, but it came down like 11 other White long balls Monday night. Just off target.
Instead, the ball fell to Tyler Roberson, who drew a foul and missed both from the line with 2.7 seconds left. White’s chance to upend the narrative of his prior 44 minutes and 55 seconds went awry, just as Syracuse’s chances at a third straight home win over a Top-10 team did the same. White scored a team-high 22 points and stretched his streak of scoring 20 or more to seven games, but his abysmal 2-of-14 clip from behind the arc doomed SU (16-11, 8-6 Atlantic Coast) in its 76-72 overtime loss to No. 8 Louisville (21-5, 9-4) in the Carrier Dome.
“They had long guys out on the wing,” White said. “They kept bringing in fresh bodies. They were running us off the 3-point line and just kind of contesting all of our open looks.”
White wasn’t the only one tossing up bricks from deep. The Orange combined to shoot 6-of-20 from 3-point range save its small forward, and the hosts in total only mustered three long-distance makes on its first 21 tries. Louisville’s active zone pestered the Orange on the perimeter, and White struggled to find open looks from his normal hot spots while penetration was at a premium.
Often, though, White thrives with a hand in his face. He hasn’t exactly mastered creating space for himself off the dribble and relies on contested looks to go down. But the 23-year-old hardly continued that trend Monday as he set personal highs for 3s taken, and missed, in his 45 minutes on the floor.
“He’s been so consistent,” point guard John Gillon said. “I know even if he’s missing the first, he’s eventually gonna make the shot. I’m still gonna pass him the ball just like he hit five in a row, even if he missed five in a row. So yeah, he’s still my first option.”
White’s first 3 came on his third try from beyond the arc but he then strung together eight consecutive misses from deep. Half of those had a chance to either bring Syracuse within one possession or put the Orange ahead. So often those momentum-swinging hits have come from the fifth-year senior. On Monday, they were nowhere to be found.
Not until 36 seconds remained did a White 3 give SU just enough life to make it interesting, cutting an eight-point deficit to five and pushing him over the 20-point mark. But two more misses from deep, including the potential go-ahead 3 with five seconds remaining, squelched any hope of redemption like Tyus Battle managed with a buzzer-beating 3 last Tuesday to rewrite his horrid night against Clemson.
“What I remember is maybe four or so seconds on the clock,” White said. “I was deep … (it) looked like an open look. I just tried to put some arc on the ball so it would either drop in or we could get a soft touch on the rim.”
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It did the latter in Syracuse’s favor, but eventually to no avail.
While White hit half of his two-point attempts (5-of-10 from inside the arc) and convert all six free throws, 12 misses from deep still overshadowed a night good on paper, at least in the scoring column.
“He played great,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “…He just couldn’t make anything till the end. He made ‘em at the end, got us back in it.”
Just getting Syracuse back in it has been enough for White in games against Florida State and Virginia, when SU successfully upset an opponent ranked in the Top 10. Against Louisville though, with the Orange in the same hole, White wasn’t enough.
Published on February 13, 2017 at 11:32 pm
Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman
