Orange battles letdown before victory
SYRACUSE — It had to happen at some point.
After nine consecutive games of strong starts and even better finishes, streaking Syracuse looked a bit sluggish for the first time in Sunday afternoon's 75-51 victory over St. Francis (N.Y.) in the Carrier Dome.
A huge win against top-10 foe Florida three days ago, and the fact that the No. 7 Orange's had handled lesser foes so easily allowed St. Francis to perhaps think upset as it stayed close for a half.
But it says a lot about this particular SU bunch that even when they don't play their best, it's still pretty good. A dominating first 10 minutes of the second half allowed the Orange (10-0) to pull away for the eventual victory, setting up a potential 12-0 start before league play begins on Dec. 29 at Seton Hall.
"It's natural to have a little bit of a letdown after the Florida win," said SU coach Jim Boeheim. "But games like this are also a great lesson for us. When we're not aggressive on defense, and forcing a lot of turnovers, we don't play as well. Our defense has set up the offense thus far, and tonight we didn't do that the first half. Once we got back to our game, and sped it up a little, we were a lot better."
St. Francis (3-6) hung around for much of the opening half by being patient, running a lot off the shot clock, and hitting six 3-pointers.
The Terriers were within four points at the under eight-minute timeout before SU pulled away for a 38-26 halftime edge.
Still, the Orange was far from satisfied.
"To a man we were disappointed in our performance the first half," said SU senior guard Andy Rautins. "We've set a pretty high standard this season, and we didn't live up to it. The whole key is defensive intensity. When we got back to that and made them make mistakes, it allowed us to pull away pretty easily."
SU forced 14 second-half turnovers, many of which were turned into easy hoops. And St. Francis went stone cold from the floor, hitting just 29 percent from the floor the final 20 minutes and making only two more threes.
"As a team, we know what we're capable of doing," said SU junior transfer Wesley Johnson, who scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds. "That first half was not us. Energy-wise, we turned it up a couple notches the second half and that led to a lot better execution on offense and defense."
SU held a significant size advantage, and the Orange big men made St. Francis pay.
Senior center Arinze Onuaku (14 points) and junior forward Rick Jackson (11 points) went a combined 12-for-18 from the floor versus the smaller Terriers.
"One thing we have been doing is looking inside more and getting the big guys the ball in good scoring position," Boeheim said. "We're going to be bigger than almost every team we play, so we have to use that to our advantage."
SU's increased activity in the 2-3 zone held St. Francis without a field goal for the opening 61/2 minutes of the second half.
Johnson hit back-to-back 3-pointers, Onuaku finished off a pair of dunks on nice feeds from freshman point guard Brandon Triche and Rautins canned two free throws to cap off a 15-3 run to begin the second half.
SU's lead extended to as many as 30 points, mainly with the entire starting five on the bench.
"Our bench guys can really play," Onuaku said. "They've allowed coach to rest the starters a lot. That's only going to help once the Big East season begins."
Reserve guard Mookie Jones also scored 10 points, hitting three 3-pointers.
SU has a week off for exams, then hosts St. Bonaventure next Saturday night and Oakland on Dec. 22 before starting conference action after Christmas.
"The key to the next two weeks is keeping our conditioning and our edge," Boeheim said. "With only two (nonconference) games left, we still have a lot of work to do. And we need to get better because the Big East is going to be really tough."
Akeem Bennett led St. Francis with 15 points.
