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Georgetown head coach Ed Cooley knew his defensive game plan was ironic. For the first time on Jim Boeheim Court, named after the mastermind of the 2-3 zone in college basketball, Cooley led the Hoyas into a rivalry game against Syracuse.

In the 100th matchup between the two teams, he reverted to the defense SU used to win for so many years.

“Coach Boeheim is either clapping or he’s cussing me out,” Cooley joked postgame. “It was something that we worked on, and now it’s something that we have in our bag.”

After toying with the zone defense unsuccessfully in the first half, the Hoyas went back to it in the second half. In the final minutes of the contest, with the two teams wrestling back and forth with the lead, Syracuse’s (5-5, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) offense was stifled by Georgetown’s (8-2, 0-0 Big East) zone defense, resulting in a 75-71 loss.

The Orange dominated inside throughout the contest with 34 points in the paint, but couldn’t crack the code of the zone in the waning possessions, failing to convert on a field goal in the final 4 minutes of play.

“Our zone offense at the time, we didn’t score when we needed to score… that was the difference,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said postgame.

When asked postgame if he expected the Hoyas to show any zone defense Saturday, Autry’s answer was simple: yes, yes, yes and yes. Autry said he’s seen Georgetown show some form of a zone defense — whether 2-2-1, 1-2-2, 2-3 or 3-2 — in each of its nine games this season.

While testing it partially throughout the season, Cooley said he leaned on the zone defense more against the Orange due to his team getting in foul trouble. At times this year, it’s been successful, while other times it’s been “awful.” Nevertheless, the Hoyas worked on it throughout the week and it was in the game plan.

The zone defense was largely ineffective when switched to in the first half. On one possession with just under 14 minutes to play in the first, Georgetown broke into a 3-2, with Jayden Epps, Micah Peavy and Malik Mack up top. SU instantly deciphered it.

Point guard Jaquan Carlos passed down from the top of the key to Eddie Lampkin Jr. at the right elbow. As Lampkin gathered the ball, Carlos switched places with Elijah Moore on the right perimeter, sneaking backdoor past Peavy for an easy layup.

Most of SU’s possessions in the first half looked the same, as it fed down low to Lampkin or Jyáre Davis and worked from there. The two combined for 21 points through the opening 20 minutes while the rest of the team had 16, tying at 37-37.

“I think that we showed throughout the game that they didn’t have the players that could guard me or (Lampkin),” Davis said. “Of course, when they go zone, it kind of makes it a little tougher to exploit the matchup that we had.”

Georgetown went back to the zone in the second half, this time with more attention to detail and an adjustment at halftime, as Cooley put it. He said the goal was to have a higher demand on certain spots, deterring an inside presence.

Lampkin and Davis still combined for 12 points in the second half, but when swinging to the outside to break the zone, the Orange couldn’t get shots to fall. This became even more apparent through the final four minutes.

Trailing 67-66 with 4:12 to go, Syracuse’s Lucas Taylor threw a skip pass into the right corner, where Carlos buried a 3 to reclaim the lead. SU wouldn’t score from the field the rest of the way.

Mack cut into the score with a free throw, and a second-chance layup from Epps gave Georgetown a 70-69 lead.

From there, Syracuse attempted to break the zone with another skip pass from Taylor to the right corner. Moore caught it and drove inside but missed the contested floater. With under three minutes remaining, the Orange got the ball back, and the Hoyas broke into a 2-3. Carlos dished inside to Davis, but he was contested by three collapsing defenders, forcing a long miss off the back iron.

“I think in the first-half zone, we were able to get the ball through the middle and the free throw line area,” Davis said. “In the second half, they did a better job of keeping me out of the middle, and man-marking the ball.”

Syracuse passed through the middle pocket of the zone to Davis again, but he was blocked by center Thomas Sorber — who finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. Georgetown got to the charity stripe to extend its lead to three. Then, as the Orange came back down, they passed up a wide-open shot for a poor one.

Deciphering the 2-3, Carlos and Donnie Freeman worked the ball around and eventually got Carlos a wide-open look from the top of the key. Carlos, who’s made just two attempts from deep all season, passed up the shot and dished right to Moore. The freshman had no choice but to force a shot from the JMA Wireless Dome logo, missing the mark.

“That’s what changed the game,” Carlos said of the zone. “I think we struggled a little bit of attacking the zone, looking down and more settling, and not really taking good looks. That’s how they was getting stopped.”

SU made another stop on defense and pushed through the zone to get an open look for Freeman. The freshman, however, missed the mark, not capitalizing on slippage in the zone on the perimeter.

The Hoyas closed out the game on the other end, as two free throws from Carlos was all the Orange could muster in the final four minutes.

Postgame, Davis compared the breakdown and a few minutes of a dry spell to Syracuse’s losses against Texas, Texas Tech and Notre Dame. Davis said the Orange played well for 36-37 minutes offensively but couldn’t get the final touches. Against the Hoyas, it was the zone defense at the worst time that made the final stop to once again fall short.

“I don’t think we played bad basketball at the end of the game today, but we just got a little stagnant against the zone. And that kind of hurt us,” Davis said.

Published on December 14, 2024 at 8:42 pm

Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky