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West Valley City • Friday night essentially was the first round of the playoffs for Syracuse, so postseason jitters naturally plagued performance in the first half.
The Titans fell into an early hole on the road against Hunter, which won the first meeting, with a collection of turnovers in the opening minutes. But behind a career-night from Haydn Sessions, they countered on two separate momentum-tilting spurts for a 57-51 win to take a one-game lead for the fourth and final playoff spot from Region 2, with one game remaining in the regular season.
Syracuse concludes the season at home against West (5-18), while Hunter hits the road to region-leading Layton (13-8). If the Wolverines were to pull the upset paired with a Titans' letdown, it would create a play-in game scenario for the fourth seed.
"[Friday's win] increases our chances, but mathematically they could catch us," said Syracuse coach Troy Anderson. "It was huge for us. No question about it. … Give credit to our kids. They maintained some composure."
The Wolverines (7-15, 5-6) jumped out to their first-quarter cushion behind McKay Meidlinger, who scored 10 quick points to help establish a 12-3 lead. Syracuse, which improved to 11-10 overall and 6-5 in league play, recognized Hunter's tendencies to penetrate, and morphed into a zone defense, baiting shots from the perimeter.
"They're a heckuva penetrating team. We knew that in order to beat them, we'd have to try and stop that, and there were times we didn't," Anderson said. "When we played them at our place, we learned a valuable lesson. They had a lot of penetration in that game, so we spent a considerable amount of time watching film."
With Hunter clanking shots, Syracuse set sail on a 17-4 run to whittle its deficit to 21-20 at the break despite Kalvin Mudrow's scoreless first half.
Mudrow, arguably the Titans' main offensive threat, finished with two points on two separate trips to the free-throw line with the fourth quarter inside a minute. He didn't convert a single field goal, but his emergence in the final 16 minutes — altering shots on defense and alert vision on several assists — correlated with the Titans breaking open a 13-point lead after opening the third on a 16-2 run.
Shouldering more responsibility in Mudrow's absence, Sessions caught fire, hitting four 3-pointers and finishing with a career-high 29 points. Sessions accounted for all of Syracuse's second-quarter points to keep Hunter from breaking free.
"It was pretty nice to be able to do that for my teammates, and get a crucial win," Sessions said. "I knew that we had to go get a win. It was win or go home. It's my senior year; didn't make it last year, and I really want to go to the state tournament this year."
The Wolverines steadily crawled back in the fourth quarter as Syracuse continued to cough up turnovers — finishing with 23 for the game — and miss attempts at the line, but the closest they came was the final score.
Twitter: @trevorphibbs