St. John’s makes the trip up to the Carrier Dome for a game against former Big East foe Syracuse to close the nonconference portion of their schedule for this season. This is the first trip to the Carrier Dome for St. John’s since snapping Syracuse’s fifty-five game home winnin streak in 2014. Last season also saw St. John’s collect a win in this meeting with the Orange.

How to Watch, Listen, or Stream

Game Time: 7:00 p.m. ET

TV: Regional Sports Network, list of affiliates can be found HERE (Wes Durham, Mike Gminski)

Radio: 970 AM

Stream: ACC Network Extra (Where available)

Gamblin’ Info

Odds: Syracuse opens up as 14 points favorites via Oddshark

Records ATS: St. John’s (6-6), Syracuse (2-4)

O/U: The o/u opened up at 149.

All-Time Series

The Orange have a 51-39 all-time series lead. Syracuse is St. John’s fourth-most played opponent of all time.

Three Points of Interest

Last Nonconference Game: The game against Syracuse is the last nonconference game on the schedule for St. John’s this season before they set sail for Big East play. It is also their second to last game of 2016. At the moment, St. John’s is riding a two game losing streak, with poor play rearing its ugly head once again. A quick win against the Orange may give St. John’s a lift and some encouragement before their game against Butler after the pause for Christmas.

Adjusting on Defense: From a defensive standpoint, St. John’s do have some form of framework that works on defense but has been unable to adjust over the course of games. This was evident last time out against Penn State where the Johnnies applied pressure during the second half of the game. Once Penn State came out of a time out with adjustment, St. John’s pressure proved to be ineffective. St. John’s needs to learn how to adjust in game on defense still it has been one of a number of Achilles Heels for this team.

Another Option: Last game, Malik Ellison emerged as another option for St. John’s as he scored 22 points against Penn State. At the moment, he is averaging 6.8 points per game for the Red Storm. He showed last game that he can be that extra scoring option for St. John’s along with Shamorie Ponds, Marcus LoVett, and Bashir Ahmed off the bench. If these options are firing, or at least all collectively calibrated, then there is a chance that St. John’s can get a significant boost on offense that might carry them in this game.