Brandon Triche stepped to the free-throw line ‘half blind.’ With 28 seconds left in Syracuse’s eventual 84-80 overtime win over Rutgers on Saturday and SU up by four, Triche had a chance to virtually close out the victory.

But a little more than three minutes earlier, Triche was poked in the eye by a Rutgers player. As a result, his contact popped out. He prepared to shoot with off-center vision. He looked at Rick Jackson, shaking his head and pointing to the eye.

‘I was just telling Rick, ‘All right, man, I’m probably not going to hit rim on this one,” Triche said. ‘But when the first one went in, I was just trying to keep the same follow-through and shoot the same shot.’

Triche sunk both, giving SU an 81-75 lead. He went 4-of-4 from the line ‘half blind’ and 9-of-9 overall. And his success was part of a recurring theme for the Orange.

Syracuse (22-6, 9-6 Big East) stepped to the line a whopping 47 times Saturday in the Carrier Dome, far more than it has in any game all season. The Orange made 34 (72.3 percent) of those tries — many of which came in clutch, late-game situations and in an overtime full of free-throw attempts — to propel it to victory in front of 28,944 in the Dome.

For the worst free-throw shooting team in the Big East coming into Saturday’s game (64.9 percent), those shots from the line saved a second-half defensive breakdown. And though that breakdown resulted in an overtime session, free throws helped clinch the game there, too.

‘Damn,’ SU guard Scoop Jardine said upon learning of SU’s 47 free-throw attempts. ‘We need to do that every game.’

Getting to the line so much went hand in hand with Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim’s offensive game plan: attack and drive to the basket.

Through that attacking mentality, the Orange engaged in a fast-paced first half. Rutgers’ (13-13, 4-10) 44 points in the half were the most put up by any opponent SU has faced this season. Both teams shot better than 54 percent from the field.

For SU, the offensive output was predicated on inside play and ball movement. Jackson had 11 points in the half. Drives from Kris Joseph and Jardine led to open 3-point opportunities or easy buckets down low. And the crisp passes also led to fouls, resulting in 16 first-half trips to the charity stripe.

‘We kept attacking,’ SU forward C.J. Fair said. ‘We got good shots a lot. … Free throws are always a big key when we get to the line. We did a good job of hitting the free throws that we needed.’

SU carried the game plan through to the second half, during which it built up a comfortable lead. But then came a defensive meltdown, caused by Jackson’s relegation to the bench after picking up four fouls. Rutgers scored on four of five possessions while he was out of the game as Jackson was replaced by freshman Baye Moussa Keita.

An accompanying SU offensive drought helped Rutgers stay in the game as well. Syracuse didn’t score for more than four minutes after a putback by Fair gave SU a 64-56 lead.

And after Rutgers’ Mike Coburn hit two free throws, SU found itself down 70-69. On the ensuing possession, Jackson stepped to the line near the end of another physical Big East game — the product of which sent him to the stripe with 9.9 seconds remaining. Jackson split the difference, tying the game.

‘Once I missed (the first) one, I just wanted to make that one back,’ Jackson said. 

After James Beatty missed a 3-pointer on the other end, Syracuse entered its first overtime game of the season. Nine of SU’s 14 points in the extra session came via the free-throw line, including the clinching point.

Calm, cool and collected, Joseph stepped to the free-throw line. It was a spot the Syracuse players were familiar with by the end of Saturday’s game.

All that stood between uncertainty and a win was one made free throw to extend SU’s lead to two possessions. And as Joseph stepped to the line with five seconds left, he drained the first. Game over.

‘It’s kind of muscle memory,’ Joseph said. ‘You just have to knock it down, have confidence. You want to be put in a situation like that if you’re a player who wants to make big plays.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on February 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm