The last time Syracuse dropped an exhibition game was back in 2003, when the defending-champion Orange lost to the Harlem Globetrotters, presumably either because they couldn’t match up in a man-to-man defense, or because they kept falling for the bucket-of-confetti trick. But last night at the Carrier Dome, Cuse fell again in an exhibition, this time to the Division II LeMoyne Dolphins, 82–79. LeMoyne scored 50 second-half points, and trailed by as much as ten in the second half before guard Christopher Johnson hit the game-winning three with eight seconds left.
Unless you’re a Syracuse alum — and there are three of them within stapler-throwing distance of our cubicle, so we have to be careful here — there’s a lot to love about this. There’s the multimedia extravaganza going on today at LeMoyne’s official athletics website. There’s the fact that it indirectly got Queens College mentioned on SportsCenter last night. (The mighty Dolphins visit Queens on November 21.) And best of all, there’s the video of the LeMoyne bench going wild when Johnson drained his three. College basketball season is officially here. Almost.