Syracuse (10-3) beat Texas Southern (1-10), 80-67,  in the Carrier Dome on Sunday, finishing off its nonconference slate.

Here are three quick observations from the game.

Lock the back door

In the first half, Texas Southern abused Syracuse on back-door cuts with forward Derrick Griffin. He hovered around the paint until a guard launched a pass from the 3-point line on the opposite side of the net, or he drove to the net, pulling up Syracuse’s center, and float a shorter pass.

Griffin finished the first half with 11 points, 10 of which came on alley-oops.

The Tigers tried to go back to the alley-oops in the second half. Griffin was open on a few, but bad passes ruined the opportunities Texas Southern had.

Hold onto the ball

Syracuse’s saving grace — in a game that was closer than it would have liked — was the Orange’s ball security and Texas Southern’s lack thereof.  The Orange committed a season-low five turnovers on the day and turned 14 steals into 18 points. Syracuse’s previous low in turnovers was six in its Dec. 13 game against St. John’s.

In the first half alone, SU picked up 10 steals, which led to 12 points.

Second-half surge

Dajuan Coleman went to the locker room at halftime with zero rebounds to his name and four points. He had been getting beat on the back-door cuts from Griffin and was having a tough time converting inside, one of his two buckets coming on a jump shot.

But in the second half, Coleman ripped rebounds down and was able to convert on second-chance baskets and get to the foul line. He tied a career-high with 14 points and tacked on seven rebounds.

Published on December 27, 2015 at 3:54 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus