Andrew White has owned up to his role all season. After his best offensive nights and his worst, White reiterated that he was brought into Syracuse as a fifth-year senior to score. And not just score, but to try and help fill the impossibly large void left by the departures of Trevor Cooney, Malachi Richardson and Michael Gbinije.

The results have been astounding. White has scored double-digit points in all but three games, underscored by a streak of seven straight conference game with 20-plus points. But even with all the offensive firepower displayed in his only season with the Orange, there’s no comparison to the 40 points he scored on Saturday afternoon.

No comparison this season, or in any of the five college basketball seasons White’s played between SU, Nebraska and Kansas. In what’s likely to be his last-ever game in the Carrier Dome, White served his final and most memorable reminder about why he’s in Syracuse.

“We just got the ball to Andrew and he just didn’t miss anything,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “One of the best shooting performances that I’ve seen. He was just gonna make everything.”

He almost did. En route to a historic performance, tying Gene Waldron for the most points ever scored in the Carrier Dome for a men’s game, White missed only four shots, and only once behind the arc. The senior’s 40 points on Senior Day was plenty to get the Orange (18-13, 10-8 Atlantic Coast) past Georgia Tech (17-14, 8-10) in a 90-61 blowout. Riding White’s steady shooting stroke, Syracuse applied some much-needed padding to its NCAA Tournament resume before playing Miami next Wednesday in the ACC tournament.

Should SU get a ticket to the Big Dance, it would be White’s first NCAA Tournament experience as a starter. It would also be an experience entirely unattainable for SU without the transfer. White now paces the Orange with 17.9 points per game, having scored nearly 25 percent of his team’s points this season.

But there was never a better time than Saturday to stitch together the marquee game of his Syracuse career.

“To be able to make some shots at such a timely moment, that was bigger than what (I was) doing,” White said. “Nobody cares about my 40 points if we lose the game. I’m glad I could do whatever I could to make this win comfortable.”

Despite building a 16-point first-half lead over the Yellow Jackets, it looked like Syracuse was headed for another dramatic finish on its home court. GT went on a 9-0 run out of halftime to trim SU’s lead down to three.

It wasn’t until White really found his rhythm that SU could push the score out of Georgia Tech’s reach. First he hit a 3 that gave the Orange an eight-point advantage with 11:37 to go. Then he fired from deep on the next possession, enticing Boeheim to lean out of his chair until the ball found net. Finally Syracuse settled on giving the ball to White almost exclusively, and he delivered in a way he hadn’t all season.

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MORE COVERAGE

• What we learned from Syracuse’s rout of Georgia Tech in regular-season finale
• Syracuse continues home dominance and beats Georgia Tech, 90-61
• Gallery: Syracuse routs Georgia Tech, 90-61, in regular-season finale
• The Final Word: Syracuse thumps Georgia Tech, 90-61

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Two more 3s fell through on consecutive possessions, and with the Yellow Jackets fed up with White’s dominance, they blatantly fouled him on his next 3-point attempt. The strategy drew a couple laughs and a smile from Boeheim, who watched White hit all three free throws.

In a 21-2 second-half run for Syracuse in about four minutes, White scored 17.

“It’s rare to see someone shoot the ball as well as Andrew,” guard Tyus Battle said. “It’s been amazing just to play with him.”

What’s surprising about Saturday’s performance is that he was coming off two of his worst performances of the season. Collectively he scored 14 points against Duke and Louisville, a combination of being face guarded by the Blue Devils’ Matt Jones and the Cardinals pressing White to drive instead of shooting freely behind the arc.

But against the zone Georgia Tech deployed in the second half, White was hell-bent on redemption. Twenty-nine of his 40 points came in the latter 20 minutes of the game.

“When people play any kind of normal defense,” Boeheim said, “he’s getting his shots.”

White did, and he rarely missed. In the midst of the most important stretch of White’s career, he did what he was supposed to do on Saturday. He did what he was brought to Syracuse to do. At a historic rate, he scored.

Published on March 4, 2017 at 9:32 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman