SU SALTS AWAY SWEET 16 BERTH
BUFFALO — Is there any doubt now about Syracuse's focus for the NCAA Tournament?
Just when the naysayers suggested that the top-seeded Orange might stumble against trendy pick Gonzaga on Sunday, SU put together its most complete game of the season and pummeled the No. 8 Zags 87-65 in a West Region second-round game at HSBC Arena.
After two dominating wins here, SU (30-4) moves onto the regional semifinals at 7:07 p.m. Thursday in Salt Lake City to face No. 5 seed Butler (30-4).
And according to Gonzaga coach Mark Few, "If Syracuse plays like they did today, there's not a team in the country that can beat them."
SU coach Jim Boeheim said Sunday's performance was the best the team has played all year.
"When we shoot like that, it's awfully tough to beat us," he said.
Junior transfer Wes Johnson, now fully recovered from a hand injury, had a spectacular game for the Orange. He scored a career-high 31 points, hitting 11 of 16 shots (4 of 6 on 3-pointers), and grabbed 14 rebounds.
Senior guard Andy Rautins hit five 3-pointers and finished with 24 points, and sophomore guard Brandon Triche gave SU a lift for the second straight night with 13 points.
The Orange, who led the Big East in field goal percentage this season, shot 54.4 percent for the game, and 60.7 percent in the first half as it rolled to a 47-32 lead.
SU made 12 of 25 3-pointers to open things up on a day when starting center Rick Jackson was limited by foul trouble, and his front-court buddy, senior Arinze Onuaku, was a spectator with a quad injury.
"No matter what five guys are on the floor we have great confidence in ourselves," said Rautins, who emerged out of the halftime break by scoring the first 11 points. "DaShonte (Riley) came in and gave us some great minutes, and Brandon and Scoop (Jardine) had their moments when we really needed them."
And while the Orange was rolling offensively, Gonzaga (27-7) was limited. Freshman forward Elias Harris scored 24 points, and sophomore center Robert Sacre added 17 on a combined 16-for-24 shooting. However, the rest of the team shot just 7-for-36 (20 percent), and the Zags finished but 3-for-21 from behind the 3-point arc.
"I thought we got some very good looks and moved the ball pretty well against their zone," Few said. "But you have to make them.
"Conversely," he added, "Syracuse kept raining down threes with hands in their face. Rautins has an uncanny knack of getting off his shot. And we just lost Johnson completely two or three times."
Gonzaga senior Matt Bouldin, the team's leading scorer (15.8 ppg.), said of SU's 2-3 zone: "They run it to perfection. Every practice squad in the country tries to mimic how they play, but you can't do it. They are so athletic and contest every shot."
Bouldin shot just 3-for-13 from the floor and scored only eight points.
The early play certainly didn't foreshadow what was to come. It was tied at 15-all with 13 minutes left in the half, and SU led only 22-21 as the clock went under 10 minutes.
But SU first went on a 9-0 run to expand the lead to 31-21. And then added an 11-0 spurt to break it open and put the Zags in a desperate mode.
"We didn't stick with our game plan for about a five minute stretch, and that was the game," Few said. "Five or six possessions were futile, and they seemed to score on every one of our mistakes."
After scoring only seven points in the opening 20 minutes, Rautins opened the second half with a deep 3-pointer, then another. He added two free throws, and a third three, and all of a sudden the Orange had expanded the lead to 58-34.
"One of our faults has been coming out a little slow in the second half," Rautins said. "I tried to set the tone right away. My teammates ran me off some great screens and I just caught it and shot it."
Johnson then scored seven straight points and the lead grew to 30 points at 71-41 with still 12 minutes to play.
"We just didn't want to go home early," Johnson said. "No matter what happened the last couple days with all the upsets, we just tried to focus on this game and what we needed to do to win."
Jackson drew his third foul with 8:58 left in the first half and SU leading by just one point. He played only eight minutes that half. But the Orange didn't appear to miss him, as Riley gave Boeheim a career-high 15 minutes in the middle.
"We've been playing with a chip on our shoulder all year because people have been doubting us," Jardine said. "After we lost two in a row, they said we were overrated and didn't deserve a No. 1 seed. And then when AO (Onuaku) went down, they said we couldn't go very far. I guess we're making believers out of some of the skeptics."
