The Orange improves its record to 9-3 despite a lack luster second half. Syracuse jumped out of the gate quickly, led by freshman point guard Jonny Flynn's 15 first half points. This was one of Flynn's best games as he found the right balance between running the offense and dishing to others or when to find his own shot. A number of games this year, Jonny has had open looks from beyond the arc, but is so unselfish that he will drive into the lane and give the rock to his teammates. With Eric Devendorf out, Flynn needs to look for his offense a little bit more because he can be a scorer. I think he did a good job of that tonight and was still able to dish out 5 dimes.Syracuse went into the locker room leading 49-30 and began thinking about holiday break a little too early. The second half was hard to watch as the Orange made only one field goal in the opening five minutes. The Orange missed a number of easy layups, but Cornell was just as cold from the field. Jonny Flynn was not as dominate as he was in the first half, but center Arinze Onuaku picked up the slack. Onuaku scored 11 points in the second half, finishing with a total of 18 on 8-for-10 shooting. The sophomore center has now converted 30 of his last 33 shots (90.9%) and has a shooting percentage of 69.1% for the year. If he continues to shoot like this, Onuaku could break a 28-year-old record which is held by SU great Roosevelt Bouie (65.4%). His latest performance also increased his scoring average to 13.8 points per game. That is the highest for an SU center since Otis Hill averaged 15.7 ppg during the 1996-97 season.
The only starter that played last season, Paul Harris, continues to struggle in the search for his shooting stroke. Head Coach Jim Boeheim pulled Harris out of the game a number of times to talk to his young player. This allowed junior college transfer Kristof Ongenaet to get some much needed playing time. Ongenaet took full advantage, diving on the floor for loose balls, blocking shots, and just flat out hustling on every play which many of his Orange teammates did not do last night. 
With Ongenaet's help on defense, the Orange held Cornell to 10-of-26 shooting from three point range. The Big Red came in as the 5th best 3-point shooting team, but made only 6 of their first 22 attempts before knocking down four consecutive treys to lessen the deficit. The Belgian's hard work earned him career highs in points (9) and rebounds (10) as he logged 22 minutes off the bench for the third consecutive game.
With Ongenaet's help on defense, the Orange held Cornell to 10-of-26 shooting from three point range. The Big Red came in as the 5th best 3-point shooting team, but made only 6 of their first 22 attempts before knocking down four consecutive treys to lessen the deficit. The Belgian's hard work earned him career highs in points (9) and rebounds (10) as he logged 22 minutes off the bench for the third consecutive game.
Perhaps the Orange struggled on offense due to Donte Green's lack of focus. The star freshman admitted he was thinking about his grandmother's cooking in Baltimore and just wanted to finish the game and go home. Green was an unspectacular 4-of-16 from the field, but did record his third career double-double, bringing down 10 rebounds. Green also had four assists, one of them a lob to the shorter Flynn who slammed it down for the highlight play of the game. Flynn finished with a game high 21 points on 9-for-14 shooting.
This game against Cornell told us about as much as the win over Colgate did, which is very little. The one positive was the play of juco transfer Kristof Ongenaet. This guy clearly is the scrapper on this team. He is willing to dive on the floor to keep plays alive. Now the Orange takes a few days off for holiday break before taking on Northeastern on Saturday, December 30 at 1 p.m. This is the final non-conference opponent for the Orange before Big East Conference play kicks-off on January 2 against St. Johns. I'll be at that game, wondering how the Orange will react to the challenge of facing a rugged Big East opponent. Until then, happy holidays to all and GO ORANGE!
