ACC Roundup – Donnie Freeman Breaks Out

5 days ago 2

In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Syracuse took care of Georgia Tech 82-72 and NC State survived Boston College, 79-71.

We were curious about how Cuse’s Naithan George would perform going up against his old team. Well he did just fine with 17 points and 5 assists. On the downside, he had just 2 rebounds and 6 turnovers.

But the real story here was Donnie Freeman, who played 34 minutes and racked up 27 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.

If he is playing on that level, he’s a force.

Baye Ndongo nearly matched him with 20 points, 9 rebounds and a block, but unfortunately, Ndongo also had 4 fouls. And of course, Mouhamed Sylla did not play due to an ankle injury, which made life easier for Freeman.

Still, that’s a star-level performance, which is great news for the ‘Cuse.

Even so, the Yellow Jackets ripped off a late 9-0 run and took a big bite out of a 20 point lead.

Syracuse is 10-5 with the win while Tech falls to 10-6.

NC State struggled a bit to put BC away on the road too, winning by just 8 over a 7-7 Boston College (now 7-8).

The Pack had to do without Tre Holloman, who injured himself against Virginia, but on the bright side, Darrion Williams returned to form, with 22 points on 8-18/4-7.

Not Ven-Allen Lubin though: he got just 7 points and 3 rebounds. No other starter got more than 8 points though Terrance Arceneaux had 12 and Matt Able 11 off the bench.

State shot 13-22 on their threes (59%).

BC is bad offensively this season but the backcourt of Fred Payne and Donald Hand combined for 38 points (24 for Payne and 14 for Hand).

BC had 16 turnovers, which obviously didn’t help. Still, the Eagles shot 50% from threes (9-18) and 51% overall, which is likely due to poor defense from the Wolfpack.

Basically, BC played to close to their limit while NC State didn’t get close theirs and still won.

Four games on Wednesday as Miami visits Wake Forest, Stanford and Cal start their Virginia trip with Virginia and Virginia Tech respectively and SMU flies into Clemson.

Wednesday’s ACC Action