The final score rarely tells the whole story, and Friday night's 75-54 final at the Carrier Dome left a lot untold. The Syracuse Orange (11-0) beat High Point University (3-7) by 21 but, did trail for a moment in the second half. There was no mystery in Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's mind as to what made the difference.
“We didn't play defense, aggressively,” Boeheim said. “Our offense was really good in the first half, but were up three [at the half] because our defense wasn't there.”
Coming off arguably his worst performance of his career (zero points missing all three of the shots he took against St. John's) Trevor Cooney regained his touch scoring a game high 17 points (5-6 on three's).
“I wasn't determined to put up a lot of shots, just be a better mover off the ball,” Cooney said. “Against St. John's I didn't do a good job of running or running in transition or coming off of screens and today I did a lot better job of that.”
C.J. Fair scored 15 (five rebounds, two steals) to help lead a Syracuse offense that was rolling for most of the night, shooting over 53 percent from both the field and three point land.
For all the success the Orange offense had, SU struggled early on the defensive end allowing HPU to shoot 50 percent from both the field and on threes. Credit the Panthers for forcing the Syracuse zone to work hard, patiently moving the ball from side to side prodding the zone.
High Point seemed intent on draining as much of the shot clock as possible on offense, at times not even beginning to run a play until 10 seconds were left and did get bailed out by a couple of desperation shots that went in at the buzzer. The Panthers trailed by three at the half, 37-34.
The Orange was down 40-39 after a Devante Wallace (10 points, two rebounds) jumper with 16:39 left in the second half. It was the last the Panthers would see of the lead as Baye Moussa Keita quickly answered with an offensive rebound put-back. It was the next sequence of plays that seemed to shift the momentum back to the home team for good.
With just under 16 minutes to play freshman Tyler Ennis (10 points, nine assists, five steals, four rebounds) converted a layup in transition, quickly stole the ensuing inbound pass and after a miss, collected his offensive rebound and scored another easy layup. It was the beginning of a 28-3 run by Syracuse over the next 10+ minutes of play that ended any thought of a High Point upset.
The Orange locked down defensively holding the Panthers to 20 points in the second half on 35 percent shooting (25 percent on threes) and forcing them into 15 turnovers (19 for the game). The Orange finished the game with 12 steals, six blocks and +9 in the turnover margin leading to 27 points off turnovers for the Orange to only four for the Panthers . The 12 steals are almost two more than Syracuse's ACC leading average (10.2).
` “It was our defense our defense, it was ok at the beginning of the game then we kinda slacked off a little bit,” Cooney said. “Once we picked our defense up we were able to go on a nice little run.”
Jerami Grant and Keita both continued their solid play off the bench. Grant scored 10 points in 17 minutes (three rebounds, one block) while Keita added seven points, four rebounds, two steals and a block in 19 minutes. Grant went out with an apparent sprained ankle after he slipped in the lane in the second half but returned to the bench and said later he was OK.
Wallace was the only High Point player to score in double figures. The Panthers leading scorer, John Brown, was held to just six points on 3-11 shooting but chipped in six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Also contributing was Cliff Cornish (six points, four rebounds), Dejuan McGaughy (seven points, 15 minutes) and Lorenzo Cugini (seven points, two assists).
“It's been a long two and a half, three months already,” Boeheim said. “I think we need the break now, I think it'll be good for us. There's a lot of things we can still work on when we get back up here.”
Next Up:
#2 Syracuse plays its next game against old Big East foe, Villanova next Saturday the 28th at 2:00 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.
Game Notes:
- This was the first game High Point University has played in the state of New York
- Syracuse is one of 12 unbeaten Division I teams left
- Syracuse's non-conference home winning streak improved to 48
- The Orange dominated the points in paint 38-18
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