College Basketball

Holy Cross-Syracuse Preview

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:11 p.m. ET

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One of these days, the Syracuse Orange is going to need sophomore forward Tyler Lydon to have a big game. And it might be Tuesday, when the No. 18 Orange host the defending Patriot League champion Holy Cross Crusaders at 7 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.

Lydon, who averaged 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game as a freshman, was recently named to the 2017 Naismith Trophy Men's 50 College Player of the Year Preseason Watch List. The 6-foot-9 Lydon scored just two points on 1-for-6 shooting with six rebounds in 26 minutes in Syracuse's season-opening 83-55 romp over Patriot League-member Colgate Friday night at the Dome. And counting Syracuse's two exhibition games, Lydon is 0-for-11 on 3-pointers this season.

"I wasn't really trying to force anything. My shot hasn't been falling for me so I'll keep working through it," Lydon said. "The first three games, even though the first two were exhibition games, I haven't made 3-pointers so clearly it's a slump but you just have to keep shooting the ball and it will come."

Orange coach Jim Boeheim said Lydon, who is playing mostly small forward after playing all over the frontcourt last season, is straying too far from the basket.

"I think we should have done a better job at getting him to the basket and I think he has to rebound and get on the offensive boards a little better," Boeheim said. "And when he gets there, he has to finish or pass it out for a jump shot. But he is a good shooter and if he shoots it, he will be fine."

Lydon and the Orange should face a tougher test Tuesday night against a Holy Cross team that's coming off its first Patriot League Tournament championship in nine years and is one of the favorites to win another conference title. The Crusaders return four starters and eight of its top 10 players from a 15-20 team that got hot at the right time and won its four Patriot League Tournament games on the road and then defeated Southern in the "First Four" for its first NCAA Tournament victory since 1953.

"We have a number of experienced players back who know what it takes to win a Patriot League championship," coach Bill Carmody said. "But if we are going to be successful over the course of the entire season, we will have to be much more consistent on both ends of the court."

The Crusaders got off to a rough start as they fell 81-49 Sunday night at South Carolina in what was technically the first game of the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational Tournament. Syracuse, South Carolina, Holy Cross, Monmouth and South Carolina State are playing round-robin tournament games, but Syracuse and South Carolina are already scheduled to play in the championship game Nov. 26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Among the Crusaders' returning starters are senior guard Robert Champion (4.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game last season) and senior forward Malachi Alexander (11.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists), who was the 2016 Patriot League Tournament MVP. Against South Carolina, Champion (18 points) and Alexander (15) shot a combined 12-for-26 and scored 33 of Holy Cross' 49 points and grabbed a 10 of the Crusaders' 16 rebounds.

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