It didn’t matter that with two and half minutes left St. John’s had hit 7-of-14 3s.

Syracuse had erased an eight-point deficit, shifted the momentum to its side and woken up 24,884 fans in the Carrier Dome.

But what the Orange didn’t have was coverage on the back left corner of its 2-3 zone, a space which SJU guard Phil Greene IV exploited. Greene sunk three 3s in the final 4:08 and added four more points to help the Red Storm (6-1) pull away for a 69-57 win over Syracuse (5-3) on Saturday night.

Greene’s late-game spurt was the culmination of SU’s game-long struggle to rotate to and close out open shooters as the Red Storm overloaded, then kicked out and punished an Orange defense that was too late too often.

“There’s no excuse for that,” SU forward Michael Gbinije said. “We definitely should’ve closed him out on that, and we didn’t. And that’s just a one pass, open shot deal and we’re not going to win games doing that.”

With 2:30 remaining, head coach Jim Boeheim fluttered his arms at head height before Rakeem Christmas stepped to Sir’Dominic Pointer about 15 feet from the hoop. When he kicked the ball out to Greene, SU forward Chris McCullough just needed to take an extra step to defend the shot that gave St. John’s a 58-55 lead with 2:29 remaining.

Instead, he was late coming out from the high post.

Just as Michigan did against the Orange in the second half of Tuesday’s loss, the Red Storm had gotten to the high post with relative ease. It made it that much easier for the Wolverines, and now SJU, to draw defenders at the free-throw line before kicking out to an open man behind the arc.

“That’s the guards up top,” SU guard Trevor Cooney said. “And then you fan out and they found the open guy and I mean he made the shot.”

It wasn’t just Greene, though. D’Angelo Harrison hit several contested 3s, and St. John’s inside-out approach seemed to be working.

The fact that the game was tied with 2:29 remaining despite the visitors having shot 50 percent from 3-point range up to that point was a testament to SU’s success in the offensive paint. But there was a gaping hole on the other end down low.

With the Red Storm protecting a three-point lead in the final two minutes, it made sense to give the ball to Pointer again in the high post. SU was in a half-court press with its big men up about 15 feet away from the basket when Pointer caught the ball at the top and center of the paint, waiting for McCullough to step to him.

“Dom set the guy up perfect,” Greene said. “We talked about it in the locker room. He was just baiting him so he could just come a little bit so he could kick it to me. And once that happened, I was wide open and I made the shot.”

And with Greene’s third 3 of the game’s final 4:08, the game went from one of winnable possession-for-possession action, to a game of foul-and-hope that the Orange would go scoreless in for the final 1:32.

Said Gbinije: “Playing from behind you have to gamble and when you have to gamble it gives them opportunities to make plays.”

Published on December 6, 2014 at 7:56 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_