After Wednesday’s lackluster effort inside the paint against Bryant, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim let his team know it couldn’t happen again.

‘That’s all Boeheim was saying last game,’ freshman guard Paul Harris said. ‘A little team out rebounded us, so that’s what we basically were trying to do, get all of the rebounds.’

And that’s exactly what Harris and the Orange did Sunday.

Syracuse out-rebounded Cal State-Los Angeles, 60-36, thanks to the efforts of Harris, center Darryl Watkins and forward Terrence Roberts, who extended a 20-point halftime margin to a convincing 99-51 victory over the Golden Eagles in front of 8,306 at the Carrier Dome.

In Wednesday’s exhibition opener, Bryant beat Syracuse on the glass, 58-53. Bryant played no one taller than 6-foot-7.

Sunday was a different story against a similar lineup. CS-LA featured one player over 6-foot-8, starting center Micah Hamilton. With Hamilton in the lineup for much of the game, it allowed Boeheim to play his starting center, Watkins, unlike in the Bryant game.

Watkins played just 12 minutes on Wednesday because he did not match up well against the smaller Bryant lineup. Against the Golden Eagles, Watkins notched a double-double, scoring 11 with 11 rebounds in 26 minutes. In the first half alone, Watkins logged 18 minutes with nine points and eight rebounds.

‘We were more aggressive on the boards today,’ Boeheim said.

‘I think our defense got a little better. They missed a lot of shots, so some of that is misleading.’

In addition to Watkins’ defensive prowess, Roberts grabbed nine boards, but the team leader was Harris, with 13-including five on offense.

‘When you send everybody to the boards and we do it the right way, you have Paul chasing rebounds, Mookie (Watkins) with 11, me with nine,’ Roberts said. ‘When you’re consistent down the line from the one man to the four man, there’s nobody who can beat us on the boards.’

Harris continued to struggle on offense. He added eight points to the 13 rebounds, but it came on 4-of-11 shooting. However, Boeheim said this is the type of game to expect from the freshman, and it is what he should focus on.

‘He’s got to not worry so much about scoring,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s just got to play, rebound, pass the ball well. He’s an all-purpose kind of player. He’s not the big scorer. He can’t try to be a big scorer right now. He’s just got to do all of the little things that he can do, especially rebound the ball. He can get you a lot of rebounds.’

The 26 team offensive rebounds led to a decisive advantage in second-chance points. Syracuse outscored CS-LA 31-10 in second-chance opportunities.

Syracuse’s defense, which struggled at times in the first half on the fast break, clamped down in the second half. CS-LA did not score its first field goal of the second frame until eight minutes in. Once the Orange slowed the game down defensively, the rout began.

The offense had to come from a different source than it did versus Bryant. Eric Devendorf scored 30 in the opener, but was 2-for-11 from the field Sunday.

Demetris Nichols led Syracuse with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting in 15 minutes. Much of the scoring came off the bench, in the form of 3-pointers by sophomore Andy Rautins and freshman Mike Jones. Rautins had 13 on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc and Jones 14, with two 3-pointers.

‘I thought Mike was active today,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought both he and Andy really shot it well and made plays.’

If it wasn’t for Cal State-Los Angeles’ poor first-half shooting (35.5 percent), the 47-27 Orange advantage could have been much slimmer. But SU put any thoughts of a close game to bed with a 36-7 run in the first 12 minutes of the second half.

‘I just thought we moved a lot better,’ Boeheim said. ‘Early we’re still struggling to get to our offense. We’ve still got some work to do, quite a bit of work to do to get into the offensive movement.

‘I think it was a real step up from the first game.’

Published on November 5, 2006 at 12:00 pm