Jalen Carey missed his first three shots on Saturday, including two 3s. In crunch time against long-time Syracuse rival Georgetown, Carey held the ball in the left corner with the shot clock under five seconds.

Carey took a dribble, then stepped back behind the 3-point line. He gathered his feet and rose up, flicking the ball toward the basket. “It felt good” off his hand, Carey said. But it hit the rim, then the backboard, then the rim again. After rolling around, though, it fell through.

“He had to take that 3,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “And it hit every part of the backboard and rim that it could. Fortunately, it stayed down.”

Carey came back and swatted a shot at the other end in a key sequence in Syracuse’s (7-2) comeback 72-71 win over Georgetown (7-2) on Saturday. Although the freshman finished with just the lone basket, paired with four assists, he stepped up when Frank Howard sat out with foul trouble and eventually fouled out. Without the little plays Carey made in the second half, SU’s comeback could have come up short. With Carey’s 16 second-half minutes playing a part, the Orange scored 50 second-half points.

“Trying to be a leader out there,” Carey said. “Still learning a lot of stuff, but it was a great win to be able to fight back and just show what we are as a team.”

In the first half, Boeheim rotated through his bench unsuccessfully. Carey spent seven minutes on the floor but didn’t shoot and turned the ball over twice.

At the break, Syracuse trailed by 13. Carey said the Orange had let missed shots get to them in the first half. The halftime message was simply to defend regardless of field goal percentage. Carey didn’t have to wait long to re-enter, as Howard picked up his third and fourth fouls, and the freshman checked in less than two and a half minutes into the second half.

“Obviously we want to have Frank out there, he’s our leader, he’s our senior,” sophomore Oshae Brissett said. “But I feel like Jalen does a great job getting in there, staying poised and running the offense perfectly.”

That’s when Carey began to attack. He drove right before spinning back toward the lane and dumping the ball off to Paschal Chukwu. SU’s 7-foot-2 center dropped the ball through the rim for a bucket.

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Three SU possessions later, Carey pushed the ball on a fast break in the center of the floor. Brissett filled his lane along the left wing. As Carey reached the foul line, he stopped and led Brissett to the rim with a bounce pass. The sophomore forward finished off the glass, and Syracuse was within three.

“Jalen did a great job pushing the ball, keeping them guessing, and it was easy to get those buckets,” Brissett said.

However, the freshman moments that Boeheim referred to after the game occurred. Chukwu stole a pass, but then Carey turned the ball right back to the Hoyas. The 6-foot-3 guard air-balled a 3, well long, from the corner.

The misses continued when Carey drove right and missed with his arm outstretched toward the backboard. There was contact, but no foul. The next trip, after a Georgetown 3, Carey took a 3 from the top of the key and missed. Boeheim sent Howard back in with his four fouls.

“Jalen got open shots, and he’s not the right guy right now,” Boeheim said. “He doesn’t understand that yet.”

Between that misfire and Howard’s foul out, less than two minutes of game time later, SU assistant Gerry McNamara spoke with Carey. He told the freshman that the next shot he’d take would “be a big one.” And McNamara told Carey, “I know you’re gonna knock it down,” Carey said.

After Carey checked back in, he didn’t have to wait long for his shot. With about 2:35 to go, the ball was kicked to Carey in the left corner. Just like McNamara said, it was a big one. Just like McNamara said, Carey drained it, with a little help from a friendly home rim.

“It’s so crazy,” Carey said. “It’s like he saw what was gonna happen before it happened … After the game he came up to me and said, ‘I told you.’”

Saturday’s game was a lot different for Carey than the first game SU opposed an old Big East foe, Nov. 15 against UConn. That day, Carey scored 26, but Syracuse lost.

Against Georgetown, Carey recognized a similarity in the physicality of another Big East opponent. But the rest varied. It wasn’t a homecoming for Carey in New York City but just a home game in the Carrier Dome. It wasn’t a career-high for Carey, but just three points. Most importantly to Carey, though, it wasn’t a loss. It was an Orange win.

“I don’t think about who we’re playing against,” Carey said. “Everybody we play against, I’m trying to chop their head off.”

Published on December 8, 2018 at 7:49 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3