Dion Waiters exploded up the court. Two seconds after Fab Melo stole the ball from Manhattan’s Mohamed Koita, Waiters was already at the rim.

Though his left-handed layup spun off the rim, two of his Syracuse teammates were in perfect position for the putback after escorting Waiters on the fast break.

As Brandon Triche extended his left hand to tip the ball in, James Southerland came crashing down the lane. He elevated over Triche and slammed home the rebound to the delight of the crowd, an ear-to-ear smile stretched across his face as he retreated back on defense.

‘He stole two points from me, but it was a great play,’ Triche said, laughing. ‘I like to see him hustling and following the play like that. I kind of saw him, so I didn’t want to mess that up. I just figured I’d get dunked on.’

The dunk by Southerland capped off a 7-0 spurt with 1:33 remaining in the first half and exemplified the Orange (2-0) offense during the opening 20 minutes. Fierce defensive pressure forced 16 first-half turnovers by Manhattan (1-1) and sparked a dynamic fast-break offense for Syracuse. The result was a 26-point halftime lead from which No. 5 SU never looked back, cruising to a 92-56 win in front of 17,284 in the Carrier Dome in an opening-round game of the NIT Season Tip-Off.

Syracuse will take on Albany on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome after the Great Danes defeated Brown on Monday night. The winner advances to the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals in Madison Square Garden next Wednesday.

The Jaspers jumped out to an early 8-5 lead in the first five minutes, but a devastating 27-3 run by the Orange seemed to knock out Manhattan before the halftime buzzer.

‘The first half I thought we got going offensively I think the best we’ve looked so far,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We were pushing the ball and didn’t turn it over. We got some good looks, and we made some shots.’

The 58 percent shooting clip posted by Syracuse in the first half was a result of 42 fast-break points, many of which were easy layups.

Scoop Jardine was pulled from the game less than two minutes in, and from that point forward, Triche and Waiters consistently looked to push the ball in transition. They combined for 14 straight points in the middle of the first half, 11 of which came off turnovers or in fast-break situations.

SU forward Kris Joseph said it was the first time since his sophomore year that the offense could get up and down the court so quickly and explosively.

‘Last year, we didn’t get a lot of opportunities to do so,’ Joseph said ‘This year, we’re a step quicker on the defensive end, and that’s how we’re going to win basketball games.’

By the time 20 minutes had been played, Syracuse held a commanding 52-26 lead. The 52 first-half points were a season high so far for the Orange, which had one more fast-break point (27) than the Jaspers did total points (26).

But after halftime, everything changed. The best offense of the season from the first half was gone, and in its place was an 0-for-10 shooting performance to start the second.

With 16:13 remaining in the second half — at which point SU still hadn’t made a field goal — Triche darted down the left side of the lane. His layup rolled off the rim, but Melo was in perfect position for the tip. And the next tip. And the next tip.

All three of his attempts failed to go in, struggles that plagued the Orange for the first 6:43 of the second half when Melo finally made the team’s first field goal to the sarcastic delight of the crowd.

‘I thought there was a lid,’ Triche said.

If it were not for the Orange’s onslaught in the opening 20 minutes, the Jaspers could have taken advantage of the SU drought.

But by the time Melo finally converted a layup with 13:17 remaining in the second half, Manhattan had failed to cut into the lead at all.

His bucket sparked an 8-0 run for the Orange that restored the offense to its first-half form. Michael Carter-Williams turned a steal into an old-fashioned three-point play, and Southerland knocked down a corner 3 off another Carter-Williams theft.

Off to the races.

‘That’s something we’ve been talking about working on,’ Boeheim said. ‘We want to get out and run better.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on November 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13