Who’s Playing
Syracuse Orange @ Tennessee Volunteers
Current Records: Syracuse 4-2, Tennessee 7-0
How To Watch
What to Know
The Syracuse Orange are headed away from home for the first time to take on the Tennessee Volunteers at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday at Thompson-Boling Arena. The Orange are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they’ve averaged 81 points per game this season.
Syracuse took a loss when they played away from home on Friday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Wednesday. They walked away with an 82-72 win over Cornell. The matchup marked the Orange’s most dominant victory of the season so far.
Donnie Freeman and Elijah Moore were among the main playmakers for Syracuse as the former dropped a double-double on 23 points and 12 rebounds and the latter went 7 for 12 en route to 19 points plus seven rebounds. Freeman had some trouble finding his footing against Texas Tech on Friday, so this was a step in the right direction.
Meanwhile, Tennessee had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 24.2 points) and they went ahead and made it seven on Wednesday. They took their contest with ease, bagging a 78-35 win over the Skyhawks. The Volunteers have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five games by 22 points or more this season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Tennessee to victory, but perhaps none more so than Felix Okpara, who dropped a double-double on ten points and 11 rebounds. Okpara’s performance made up for a slower match against Baylor on Friday. Zakai Zeigler was another key player, almost dropping a double-double on 11 points and nine assists.
Tennessee was working as a unit and finished the game with 22 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as UT Martin only posted eight.
Syracuse pushed their record up to 4-2 with the victory, which was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season. As for Tennessee, their win bumped their record up to 7-0.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Syracuse has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 43 rebounds per game. However, it’s not like Tennessee struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 38.6. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we’ll see if one team can grab an edge.
Syracuse ended up a good deal behind Tennessee in their previous meeting back in November of 2023, losing 73-56. Can Syracuse avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We’ll find out soon enough.
Series History
Tennessee won the only game these two teams have played in the last year.
- Nov 20, 2023 – Tennessee 73 vs. Syracuse 56
