College men's basketball: Girard III at center of resurgent Syracuse's win over Oakland

Dec. 7—SYRACUSE — Joseph Girard III and the Syracuse University men's basketball team continued their collective bounce-back in his 100th career start on Tuesday night.

The senior shooting guard scored 18 points to help lead the Orange to a 95-66 victory over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies with 17,368 fans present in the JMA Wireless Dome.

Syracuse (5-4 overall, 1-0 ACC) will play another nonconference game at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Dome against former Big East rival Georgetown (4-5) in a game to be televised on ABC.

Senior center Jesse Edwards matched the team lead with 18 points for the Orange and the veteran duo combined to shoot 16-for-19 before sitting for good just three minutes into the second half.

Girard was just shy of scoring 20 for the second straight game to bust out of his personal slump and lift SU to its second win in a row after a three-game losing streak amid his struggles.

"It's a good confidence-booster, but it's a credit to my coaches and my teammates for believing in me and sticking with me," Girard said. "Somewhere there might be times where they might just give up on you, but these guys haven't given up on me, they've done a lot for me, been behind me the whole time, and I give all the credit to them."

Girard shot 7-for-10 from the field and made 4-for-7 from behind the 3-point arc in 23 minutes before resting for the final 17 minutes of the blowout win. He scored 15 points to go with five assists before halftime to push SU to a 45-24 edge at the intermission.

The Jerry West Award Watch List candidate made 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to highlight an 18-0 run to close the first half and help SU pull away after a back-and-forth start featuring eight lead changes over the opening 10 minutes.

Girard scored 20 points on 9-for-18 shooting to key SU's 62-61 ACC victory over Notre Dame on Saturday but was held to nine total points on a combined 2-for-25 mark from the field over the prior three games, all SU losses.

"I never lost any trust in his abilities, so for me, I felt like it was just a matter of time," Edwards said of his fellow senior. "But it's always good to see him performing like that because he was great tonight and against Notre Dame."

The Glens Falls native reflected on the milestone of starting his 100th straight game at SU. He has been a fixture in the starting lineup since the third game of his freshman campaign.

Brandon Triche holds the SU record for most career starts, establishing the mark at 147 from 2009-13.

"That means a lot to me, there have been legends to come through this program, and I give a lot of credit to my teammates and coaches for believing in me and sticking with me through the ups and downs," Girard said afterward. "To be on a list with some of those legends in that regard is pretty remarkable for me."

Edwards made all nine of his shot attempts and added seven rebounds and two blocks in 23 minutes, exiting alongside Girard to a loud applause early in the second half.

The senior center entered averaging 12 rebounds and 2.5 blocks to lead the ACC in both categories — he ranks fourth nationally on the boards — and had hauled in 54 rebounds over his previous three games combined.

"They're our veteran players and we need them to play consistently," SU coach Jim Boeheim said of the senior duo. "Some nights they will play better than others, but we need them to be factors, but we need to get some other guys playing well. ... We've got a lot of young guys that are learning."

Freshman forward Maliq Brown made good use of his extended run in the second half with 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting and tying for the team lead with seven rebounds.

Trey Townsend led Oakland (2-9) with 29 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 14 early to keep Oakland afloat, making 7 of his first 10 shots to guide the Golden Grizzlies to a 21-20 advantage with 8:29 left in the first half.

The matchup featured the two longest-tenured head coaches in Division I college men's basketball with Boeheim in his 47th season at SU and Greg Kampe in his 38th year at Oakland.