Sophomore guard Chris Hill delivered a dynamite performance Sunday afternoon, but the rest of his teammates dropped the bomb.
The Spartans couldn't take advantage of Hill's spectacular 34-point game, falling in a 76-75 thriller.
Hill set a Big Ten record with 10 3-pointers en route to his career-high 34 points. He finished 12-of-20 from the field, including a 10-for-18 performance from beyond the 3-point line. The rest of the Spartans (14-11 overall, 6-6 Big Ten) finished 13-for-40 from the field.
"Chris Hill had such an incredible day," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "He did a great job all around, not only shooting the ball but running our team. It's just unfortunate he can't enjoy it like he should."
Hill's previous career-high was 25 points against Minnesota last season. It was the first time he broke the 20-point barrier since MSU's loss in Ann Arbor on Jan. 30 - a six-game span.
Syracuse (19-4) used a 2-3 zone for the entire game, which allowed for more open looks on the outside. Still, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim wasn't pleased with his defense.
"We just couldn't find Hill on defense," Boeheim said. "We pride ourselves on stopping guys and he just kept making them. Give him credit, he had it going today. I knew after he hit those threes at the beginning, it was going to be a long day."
The triples Boeheim mentioned occurred before the first TV time-out.
Hill sunk a trey from the top of the key to give MSU an early 6-3 lead. Two minutes later, he drained another 3-pointer from the baseline to put MSU up 11-7.
Hill helped the Spartans retake the lead at 18-15 with another triple and then a minute later, his 3-point magic continued as he gave MSU a 22-20 lead.
"It was definitely one of the best games I've seen in awhile," senior forward Aloysius Anagonye said. "Probably since my freshman year when Mateen (Cleaves) had 20 assists in a game."
By the end of the first half, Hill had 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, including, 5-of-7 from beyond the arc.
In the second half, Hill still had the touch.
At one point, Hill launched a triple from in front of the Spartan bench with two defenders lunging at him. The shot tied the game at 44 just 33 seconds into the half.
"It definitely gets a little bigger when you get on a roll like that," Hill said of the rim. "But it never gets big enough."
Trailing 76-75 with 29.2 seconds to play, the Spartans drew up a play for Hill. He was supposed to come off a double screen and take a jump shot. Boeheim said the Orangemen "weren't going to let Hill shoot it."
Hill had the opportunity to shoot it, but he declined.
"We had an inbounds play drawn up and I'm guessing they studied it because they had it guarded real well," he said. "I guess I could have pulled up in the lane instead of kicking out, but I thought it was the right decision to kick it out to (sophomore guard Kelvin Torbert)."
He didn't question his decision of kicking the ball out to a wide-open Torbert on the baseline, but Hill wishes his game could have come within a great Spartan performance.
"I definitely felt good all game," he said. "I took some bad shots, but my teammates and coaches didn't seem to get too upset. I was feeling it, but the loss hurts because as a team I think we played really well."
