Las Vegas – It would be easy to look at a box score from Iowa State’s 95-64 dismantling of Syracuse here and conclude the Orange could not guard the Cyclones.

And while that is true, the primary problem for Syracuse in these three Players Era Festival games has been a lack of purpose on offense.

A rudderless Orange has resulted in too much standing, too much dribbling, insufficient recognition of what the defense is presenting and on Wednesday, turnovers that led to easy Cyclones buckets.

Iowa State scored 20 points in the second half off Orange turnovers. As those mistakes ballooned, they deflated any energy left in the Syracuse tank.

“Proud of our guys for their execution second-half defensively, setting the tone with the ball pressure, generating turnovers and scoring off our defen

See Full Page