GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tyler Ennis walked off the Greensboro Coliseum court, head down. Rakeem Christmas strode at his side, arm draped around Ennis’ shoulder, hand placed atop his head.

A few minutes earlier, it appeared Syracuse’s spectacular freshman was on his way to winning another close conference battle for the Orange.

Instead, his impressive effort fell short as the No. 2-seed Orange (27-5, 14-4 Atlantic Coast) lost to No. 7-seed North Carolina State (21-12, 9-9) 66-63 in the ACC tournament quarterfinals Friday night.

“Thank God we had him, otherwise it would’ve gotten ugly,” SU guard Trevor Cooney said.

Ennis scored a team-high 21 points on 6-of-18 shooting and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line. He also finished with seven assists, five rebounds, four steals and one turnover, willing the Orange back from a 10-point deficit with 11:02 left in regulation. But when the comeback came undone, so did Ennis.

He committed a charge with 1:21 to go, then forced a runner eight seconds later and missed two of SU’s six desperation shots in its last possession.

“Tyler got in traffic and took a bad shot,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said of Ennis bank attempt which rolled off the rim. “It was a really bad play and we haven’t been making those plays late in games.”

Aside from those plays, Ennis was far and away SU’s best player on the floor. And if there’s a positive he said he could take away from the game, it was the pick-and-roll rhythm he established with Jerami Grant.

Three of Ennis’ assists came to his lanky, athletic counterpart. And each time Ennis dribbled around one of Grant’s screens, he either found an open lane to the basket or an open Grant.

“I don’t think teams can really guard both of us,” Ennis said. “They’ll kind of have to choose who they want to score.”

Ennis said he expects to run more of those in the NCAA Tournament, but on Friday it wasn’t quite enough.

Ennis nearly propelled the Orange to another victory, like he did against Pittsburgh twice, Miami and Wake Forest earlier this season.

But this time he fell short.

Published on March 15, 2014 at 12:46 am

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1