Competing forces struck the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team (6-4) in its Tuesday night matchup versus the Monmouth Hawks (1-9). The first of which was out of its control, with nearly the entire Orange fanbase checked out with the Syracuse men’s soccer team defeating the Indiana Hoosiers in penalty kicks in the College Cup Finale thriller.
The Orange were able to defeat Monmouth 86-71, overcoming the slow start with a much better (not necessarily great) second-half performance by the team.
Syracuse looked dazed and confused throughout the first half against Monmouth. Monmouth surged out to a slight lead for nearly half of the game’s first 20 minutes because of the Orange’s slow-reaction, unaggressive defense.