Syracuse battling for ACC tourney berth, faces last-place Miami

Syracuse is competing to earn a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament with roughly a month left in the regular season.

The Orange will try to bolster their position in the conference standings when they take on last-place Miami on Tuesday night in Coral Gables, Fla.

Syracuse (11-13, 5-8 ACC) enters the game in a four-way tie for 11th place in the conference thanks to a dramatic 95-86 triple-overtime win at home against Boston College this past Saturday.

Miami (5-18, 1-11 ACC) scored its first conference win Feb. 1 at home against Notre Dame, and battled Louisville Saturday on the road before losing 88-78.

The Orange desperately needed their victory to stay above the cutoff of 15 teams to make the ACC tournament from the 18-team league.

JJ Starling scored 28 points on 10-for-22 shooting, Jyare Davis had 16 points and five rebounds and Eddie Lampkin recorded his ninth double-double with 14 points and 18 rebounds to key the win.

"This team, we are fighters. We've been in some battles," said Syracuse coach Adrian Autry, who is in his second season after replacing the legendary Jim Boeheim. "To be in a game like this and pull it out, it was good for us. We needed to have that. I'm excited that we're able to show that. We will keep building and fighting to the end of the season."

Starling is averaging a team-best 18.2 points per game, but the Orange announced this week they would be without second-leading scorer Donnie Freeman (13.4) for the rest of the season due to a lower right leg injury.

The Hurricanes are led by Matthew Cleveland (16.1 points per game) and Lynn Kidd (11.0 ppg, 6.8 rpg). Miami's play has improved in recent games despite having only the one victory to show for it.

"Day in and day out, I'm just staying consistent, staying motivated and it's just really good to finally get the reward that we've been looking for and try to build on it," Cleveland said after the Notre Dame win.

A.J. Staton-McCray gave Miami another source of offense against Louisville as he finished with 22 points off the bench. The Hurricanes have averaged 76.5 points per game over their past four games. But their woes rebounding and defending resurfaced in the second half vs. Louisville as they were beat 39-33 on the glass and allowed the Cardinals to shoot 35.5 percent from 3-point range.

Hurricanes interim coach Bill Courtney missed the game due to an illness, but is expected to be back on the sideline Tuesday.

--Field Level Media