Syracuse was upset at home on Saturday, falling to a scrappy Temple team to suffer its first loss of the year.
The No. 3 Syracuse Orange were playing at Madison Square Garden, a normally friendly confines where the team would go on an annual run in the Big East Tournament. The Orange fell 83-79 in the first Chevrolet Gothan Classic, ESPN noted.
But this time Syracuse was upset by the Atlantic 10 foe Temple, led by a career-high 33 points from Khalif Wyatt, CBS Sports noted.
“I always wanted to play here because all the great players had a chance to play here,” the 6-foot-4 senior said. “This was a chance for us to show everyone that Temple is a real program.”
The upset of Syracuse was a bounce back game for the 9-2 Temple Owls, which was coming of a 10-point home loss to Canisius.
“I don’t think we would have won today without the loss in the last game,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “Our guys did a great job today. I wish it was worth more than one victory.”
With the upset, Syracuse saw its 52-gam regular season non-conference winning streak broke. It also prevented Orange coach Jim Boeheim from notching his 901st win. He remains two wins behind Bobby Knight for No. 2 all time in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.
The game came down to missed opportunities, he said.
“They made free throws, we didn’t,” Boeheim said of the Syracuse upset.. “You don’t like to say it comes down to that, but when you miss 15 free throws it’s tough to win any game.”
