GAME NOTES: The Virginia Tech Hokies kick off Atlantic Coast Conference play against the Syracuse Orange on Saturday afternoon at Cassell Coliseum.

Syracuse is coming off a 61-44 win over Cornell on New Year's Eve, which wrapped up a 3-0 homestand. The Orange are 0-2 in true road games so far this season. Following this tilt, they will travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech next Wednesday night.

Virginia Tech is looking to rebound from an 82-51 setback at No. 17 West Virginia on Tuesday. That outcome snapped the Hokies' four-game winning streak. They could certainly use another win here before hitting the road for three straight.

Syracuse has won the last five head-to-head meetings to take a 5-2 series lead over Virginia Tech.

Cornell had no answer for Jim Boeheim's vaunted 2-3 zone, which limited the Big Red to just 12 first-half points on 5-of-25 shooting from the floor. That marked the lowest scoring output in a half against the Orange this season. Syracuse then put the game away with a 24-12 run to start the second half, and they went on to outscore Cornell in the paint, 34-20.

Rakeem Christmas finished with 19 points and nine rebounds; one board short of his third straight double-double. Trevor Cooney added 14 points and three steals in the victory. Along with Christmas (17.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg) and Cooney (13.2 ppg), Chris McCullough is also averaging double figures with 10.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.

It will be interesting to see how Syracuse's zone defense matches up against the Hokies, who are among the nation's most dangerous 3-point shooting teams (.406). Adam Smith (12.2 ppg) and Justin Bibbs (12.0 ppg) have been a big reason behind that, as they have combined to knock down 60 percent of the Hokies' threes, and at a 48-percent success rate.

However, the whole team went cold in the second half against West Virginia earlier this week. Tech trailed by only a 33-30 margin at the break, but then went on to shoot just 9-of-23 from the floor the rest of the way, including 1- of-8 from the perimeter. Smith and reserve Satchel Pierce shared team-high scoring honors with 10 points apiece in the loss. Smith also committed six turnovers.

The Hokies are coming off one of their worst shooting performances of the season, and they don't figure to see many open looks against the Orange. Meanwhile, Syracuse needs to start winning games on the road if it wants to contend for an ACC title.