No. 2 Virginia could attract a crowd at Syracuse (Feb 02, 2018)

The largest home crowd of the season is expected for Syracuse when it hosts No. 2 Virginia on Saturday.

The fans will likely not be entertained by an up-tempo, high-scoring, fast-break show. Defense will be theme when the Cavaliers (21-1, 10-0 ACC) play the Orange (15-7, 4-5) in front of an expected crowd of more than 26,000 at the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse's top home attendance this season is 24,304 against Notre Dame.

Virginia has the best defensive team in the nation, allowing only 52.7 points per game.

Syracuse is known for its active 2-3 zone defense under coach Jim Boeheim. The Orange rank No. 10 nationally, allowing 62.8 points per game.

In the first meeting on Jan. 9 in Charlottesville, Va., Virginia won 69-61. The Cavaliers shot only 38.3 percent from the field and Syracuse made 37.7 percent.

The Orange made 28.6 percent of its 3-point shots and the Cavaliers shot just 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.

Virginia's lack of high-scoring games have the Cavaliers believing people tend to overlook them.

"It is exciting because people don't appreciate it, don't talk about us at all and that's fine," sophomore guard Ty Jerome said. "We don't care. People call us boring, this and that, but we don't care. This is who we are and we're going to embrace it and our fans embrace it and that's what's most important."

Virginia coach Tony Bennett has coached four teams that have led the nation in scoring defense. The Cavaliers, who are in the midst of a 13-game winning streak, have held eight opponents below 50 points this season.

Bennett said the difference is Virginia's chemistry when it comes to a team effort on defense. He has used the same starting lineup of Jerome, sophomore guard Kyle Guy, senior guard Devon Hall, senior forward Isaiah Wilkins and junior center Jack Salt in all 22 games.

"We don't have to be great; we just have to be good all the time," Bennett said. "That's our way. I don't know what our ceiling is. I think there's a special synergy with our group. There's talent. There's individual talent, but I love that saying: 'The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.'

"We've got some really good parts, but there's something going on with that synergy."

The Cavaliers are off to their best start in the ACC since they were 12-0 in 1980-81, Ralph Sampson's sophomore season.

Syracuse had a three-game winning streak snapped with a 55-51 loss at Georgia Tech on Wednesday. Sophomore forward Tyus Battle had 19 points and a career-high nine rebounds for the Orange, who shot a season-low 30 percent from the field.

Battle and junior guard Frank Howard combined to make only 8 of 34 shots from the field, including 4 of 15 from 3-point range.

"It was a bad offensive game," Boeheim said. "When you don't make shots and you gotta drive, it becomes a hard game. We don't run set plays to get shots because we can't make them."