|
|
Syracuse finally dominated a game from the opening tipoff, and it didn't matter that it was against a team the Orangemen have beaten 38 straight times.
``It was just a good offensive game for us,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said Monday night after his 17th-ranked Orangemen beat Colgate 101-63. ``When you look at our season, this was the first game we've had that we really got control of the game and there wasn't any doubt. Every other game was tooth and nail. There wasn't any kind of light at all. So this was a good game for us at this stage.''
It was the sixth straight win overall for the Orangemen (6-1) and only the second loss in the last six games for Colgate (5-4).
Hakim Warrick had 17 points and Billy Edelin added 14 and seven assists to lead five Syracuse players in double figures. Gerry McNamara also finished with 14 points, while Josh Pace had 11 and freshman Demetris Nichols 10.
Mark Linebaugh had 23 points and Howard Blue added 16 for Colgate, which was outrebounded 50-27.
It didn't take
the Orangemen long to assert their superiority. They outscored the Raiders 23-7
to take a 27-11 lead with 12:45 left in the opening half.
McNamara opened an 11-2 run with two free throws and ended it with a long 3-pointer
from the top of the key for a 15-6 lead at 16:28.
Andrew Zidar answered with a 3 for Colgate just 11 seconds later, but then the tentative Raiders went more than five minutes without a basket against a stiff Syracuse man-to-man defense.
``We played hard, got after it defensively in the man-to-man, made good decisions and knocked our shots down,'' said McNamara, who hit four 3-pointers. ``It was just a great team effort. The guys that came in from the bench really gave us a boost, and in the games we struggled they didn't. If we're going to be successful, we have to have the guys on the bench.''
McNamara set up Warrick for a resounding dunk with an alley-oop pass and caught the Raiders off-guard with a 3 from the right wing to key a 12-2 spurt that put Syracuse up 27-11.
The Orangemen, who forced Colgate into three shot-clock violations in the first half, led 52-30 at halftime and began the second half with an 11-2 run. Pace ended it with a scoop in the lane to make it 63-32 with 17:33 to play.
``That's what happens when you play against a team of this caliber,'' Colgate coach Emmett Davis said. ``When you make mistakes against other teams, a lot of times it doesn't seem that bad. But against Syracuse those same mistakes are magnified.''
The Raiders managed to keep the deficit near 30 by hitting seven 3-pointers in the half, five by Linebaugh.
AP - Dec 22, 8:32 pm EST
More Photos
``Playing against a team like Syracuse is a positive,'' said Linebaugh, who
hit three 3s in a two-minute span. ``We're not going to play a team of this
caliber the rest of the year. The second half we got our offense going by making
the extra pass and getting open shots. You have to take the positives out of
it.''
And the negatives.
Although Syracuse's four freshmen shot 15-for-32 and combined for 30 points in 62 minutes, they were 0-for-10 from 3-point range, with Nichols missing six.
Finding a complement to McNamara on the perimeter is something the Orangemen desperately need and are still searching for.
``It's tough to shoot in the Carrier Dome,'' said Louie McCroskey, who had eight points but missed three 3s. ``It's kind of like in the summertime when me and Demetris came over here. We were like, 'Wow, there's no background!' Everything was coming out.
``It just took time for us to shoot well in practice. Now, we've just got to transfer it over to the games.''