Orange Tame Huskies in 95-74 Victory

After a three game hiatus from the Carrier Dome, yours truly returned to the Loud House with a few friends from high school (shout out to my loyal readers Eric and Jeff). The Orange couldn't have ended the year any better, as they cruised to a twenty-one point win, their tenth of the year, over the Northeastern Huskies.

But the game was a contest for the first twenty minutes. The Huskies trailed by only two at the half as they shot 50 percent from three-point range (5-of-10) and 53.6 percent (15-of-28) from the field overall. Leading the way for the Huskies was Matt Janning who scored 15 points in the first half. Northeastern's triangle and two defense confused and slowed the Orange's leading scorer. Freshman star Donte Green was held to one three-pointer and only attempted two shots from the field. Thankfully for the Orange, Paul Harris picked up his offensive game.

Harris attacked the paint with drives to the basket, making contact and forcing the officials to blow the whistle. "Do-it-all-Paul" dropped in 12 points in the first twenty minutes of play, half of them coming from the charity stripe. In the second half, Harris continued to show great effort as he corralled 15 rebounds for the game, matching a career-high. For the game, Harris had 19 points, nine of them coming from the free throw line, which is where he should be a lot this year. In this game he played under control and did not take many jump shots. Instead, he attacked the rim and went to the free throw line. That is the Paul Harris we need to see. Last year he just took it to the paint and put it on the officials to make a decision. I know he wants to show everyone that he has a jump shot, but when we get into the Big East, were gonna need to have someone take it strong the hoop. That is what Harris does well. Harris' season-high 19 points and 15 rebounds give him the 14th double-double of his career. He also added seven assists, including a few sweet behind the back passes.

Some of Harris' energy rubbed off on to freshman guard Antonio "Scoop" Jardine. In only the third start of his career, Jardine put up a career best 18 points and dished out four assists. Jardine matched his previous career-high of eight points (against East Tennessee State University) in the first half. He knocked down 7 of his ll shots and added four free throws amid cheers of "Scoooooop!" from the Syracuse faithful. While Jardine can't fill injured Eric Devendorf's shoes, he certainly can do many good things. Scoop is great at getting into the lane and drawing defenders with him. While his jump shot is anything but pretty, he has a variety of runners and floaters that he can put on the rim. Jardine just finds a way to get the job done and that is all we can ask for from such a young player still learning on the job. Head Coach Jim Boeheim was also pleased with the freshman's defense as Jardine was matched up with Northeastern's Janning as the Orange switched to man-to-man defense. Janning connected on only 2-of-7 field goal attempts in the second half and finished with 26 points. Many of his teammates followed suit, as the Huskies shot a miserable 27 percent from the floor in the second half.

With the performances of Harris and Jardine, the Orange used a 25-11 second half run to stretch their lead to 16 points, which they held for much of the half, extending all the way to 22 at one point. Donte Green recovered from a sluggish start to score 17 points, including 4-of-6 shooting from beyond on the arc. Syracuse had six players in double figures, including a career-high ten points from Kristof Ongenaet off the bench. It is the third time the Orange have accomplished that feat this season. The Orange outscored the Huskies 51 to 32 in the second half, and Syracuse dominated the inside with a commanding 54-28 advantage with points in the paint. The Orange continues to display their offensive talent by topping the 90 point mark for the 5th time this season. The last Syracuse squad to do that was the 2003-2004 team, which included the likes of Gerry McNamara and Hakim Warrick. The win is also significant as Jim Boeheim moves into 11th place on the all-time Division I wins list with 760.

The Orange, now 10-3, enters the year 2008 on a four game winning streak. But now they must face the rough and tumble Big East. Now the bumps and bruises come over an extended eighteen game conference slate that begins Wednesday night against the Red Storm of St. John's. I'll be there for the Big East opener and look forward to yelling "Scoooooop!" many more times.