BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Late in the first half of Maryland men’s basketball’s clash with Syracuse at the Gotham Classic, Ja’Kobi Gillespie began a drive down the left side of the lane before flipping a behind-the-back pass with his right hand to Selton Miguel, who calmly drained a 3-pointer from the left elbow.

That play drew gasps and then applause from the announced 8,022 at the Barclays Center and punctuated what turned into a shockingly easy 87-60 victory for the Terps over the Orange.

Gillespie’s showmanship and Miguel’s production highlighted Maryland’s seventh win in its last eight games. The defense held Syracuse to a season low in points and prevented an opponent from reaching the 60-point threshold for the eighth time so far.

“Coming off Saint Francis, I didn’t think we played very good defensively,” coach Kevin Willard said, referring to Tuesday’s 111-57 thumping of Saint Francis. “So we wanted to come out and make a statement right away defensively. I thought our intensity right from the start just set the tone and kind of got them on their heels a little bit.”

Miguel, who added two rebounds, two assists and two steals, played a significant role in the Terps’ lopsided win. The graduate student small forward matched the season-best 24 points he scored on Tuesday, and in his past two starts, he has converted 18 of 24 shots (75.0%) from the floor and 10 of 15 (66.7%) from 3-point range.

“It just feels good,” Miguel said of his recent play. “That’s me. I’m just trying to be back on it and keep working hard and take it day by day.”

Gillespie, a junior point guard who came from Belmont, amassed 17 points, a career-high 11 assists, five rebounds and three steals. And senior power forward Julian Reese, a Randallstown native and St. Frances graduate, racked up 11 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and two steals for his fifth double-double of the season, and freshman center Derik Queen, a Baltimore resident, compiled 11 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Terps (10-2).

Maryland will have a great deal of yuletide cheer heading into the Christmas break before its final nonconference game against UMES (4-11) on Saturday at noon at Xfinity Center in College Park. The team made 10 more buckets than Syracuse (35-25) and dominated in departments such as points off turnovers (25-11), points in the paint (42-26), steals (15-5) and assists (26-17).

The Terps were so good that they were not whistled for a foul that sent the Orange to the free-throw line until freshman power forward Donnie Freeman converted a pair with 5:26 left in the game.

Syracuse turned the ball over a season-high 21 times, shattering its previous mark of 13 in a 69-64 loss at Notre Dame on Dec. 7, giving it away 12 times in the first half. That marked the sixth time this season Maryland has forced an opponent to commit 10 or more turnovers in the opening frame.

“We scouted, and we knew what we needed to do defensively on them,” Gillespie said. “So we were just really locked in and pressured the bigs on their dribbling and just rotated.”

Miguel, who scored 17 points in the first half against Saint Francis, extended his torrid shooting ways against Syracuse. He scored the Terps’ first five points on a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws and then added a layup during a 7-0 spurt that gave the team a 12-4 lead.

The gap might have been greater if Maryland had not missed four layups and a potential slam dunk. Gillespie’s layup with 10:50 left in the first half not only ended a 2:34 drought for the team, but it also kicked off a 14-5 run over a 3:52 span capped by the aforementioned Gillespie-to-Miguel razzle-dazzle with 6:25 remaining.

The Orange got back-to-back layups to draw within 26-15 with 4:23 to go, but the Terps responded with a 17-2 spurt to close out the period. They scored 10 unanswered points in the final 1:47 – a stretch that ended with Gillespie making a steal and leaving the ball behind for fifth-year senior small forward Jordan Geronimo to slam home a thunderous dunk to give Maryland a 43-17 advantage at halftime.

The second half was more of the same. The Terps pumped in 14 consecutive points for their 20th run of at least 10-0 this season and enjoyed a lead that grew to as much as 38 points before Syracuse whittled it down to the final 27-point margin.

Freshman power forward Donnie Freeman paced the Orange with 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Freshman shooting guard Elijah Moore and redshirt junior point guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. came off the bench to score 16 and 10 points, respectively, and graduate student center Eddie Lampkin Jr. accumulated nine points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

But Syracuse (5-6) lost for the fourth time in its last five games. They also could not extend their winning streak against the Terps to five in a row.

Coach Adrian Autry was succinct in summing up his team’s performance.

“We got our butts kicked, handed to us,” he said. “We hung around for a minute, but never could get our offense going. They pressured us, they bothered us, but at the end of the day, we got our butts kicked. It’s embarrassing, very disappointing. The one thing that we’ve done all year, even though we’ve come up short, we’ve competed. Today, that wasn’t the case.

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