Dion Waiters finished an astonishing personal sequence at the rim and released his jubilation with a fist pump toward the ground and a chest bump with Scoop Jardine.

A combination of dominating defense and offense culminated in the Syracuse guard taking his steal all the way to the basket, rising above George Washington guard Tony Taylor and sinking a layup plus the blocking foul. Less than a minute earlier, he flew in for a highlight-reel right-handed reverse dunk on a fast break, sending the Carrier Dome crowd into a frenzy as he celebrated too.

‘I’m happy for Dion because he’s really playing hard for us and he’s really making a commitment and being that player off the bench, that spark that he can be,’ the SU guard Jardine said.

Off the bench, Waiters helped provide a jolt to an SU offense that was in a swoon in its last couple games. Syracuse (10-0) shed itself of its previous early-game struggles, scoring the first seven points of the game and shooting 51.4 percent in the first half of an 85-50 rout over George Washington (4-5) in front of 23,226 in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. On his 20th birthday, Waiters erupted for a career-high 19 points and six steals to lead the charge, as SU took a 20-point lead into the locker room at halftime. A combination of pressure defense creating turnovers and improvement in finishing in transition allowed No. 3 Syracuse to cruise comfortably in the second half against the Colonials.

And with each of the top two teams in the country — No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 Ohio State — losing on Saturday, the Orange may be poised to ascend to the top ranking in the country for the first time since March 2010.

‘It’s nice, these kids have worked hard,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Whatever happens, happens, we’ll just have to be ready to play next week.’

The Orange’s relentless full-court pressure helped it pull ahead early. GW head coach Mike Lonergan said after the game his guards were worn out by the pressure applied on defense by the SU guards.

That pressure began as soon as Syracuse scored a basket. While it didn’t lead to a ton of turnovers in the backcourt, the defense threw the Colonials off in their offensive sets.

‘I think they were a little nervous,’ SU guard Brandon Triche said. ‘They didn’t really have a clear idea of what they wanted to do with the ball and I think they struggled with our defense.’

It took a GW team technical — for having an incorrect number in the scorebook — to put SU on the board a minute into the game, but from there, the Syracuse offense rolled. Kris Joseph came up with a steal under the SU basket and quickly pushed the ball out to Triche in transition. The guard found Jardine streaking up the floor for a layup, putting the Orange up 7-0 and causing Lonergan to use a timeout. 

Jardine scored six of SU’s first 11 points as the Orange took an early 11-2 lead.

‘We start out slow a lot and today we really tried to pick it up,’ Jardine said. ‘Especially on the defensive end, coach pressed as soon as we got a bucket. And that was something we never really do and it kind of got us going a little bit.’

The breakneck start for SU continued when Joseph hit a 3 right in front of the GW bench to put the Orange up 16-4, causing Lonergan to just turn away, shake his head, and laugh. The Colonials were overmatched.

Then Waiters took over the game. The sophomore said after Tuesday’s game against Marshall he anticipated a big game on his birthday, and he delivered.

His first bucket came after Michael Carter-Williams recovered a loose ball, and pushed it to Waiters for a reverse right-handed dunk that got the crowd going. It was the first of many points off turnovers for Waiters. SU scored 34 points off GW’s mistakes, while the Colonials only managed three points off turnovers.

His steal on GW’s next possession led to the three-point play and Waiters’ excitement.

‘The crowd always gets me hyped,’ Waiters said. ‘And I just try to go out there and give them a play, get up, get on their feet, bring more energy into the Dome.’

Waiters led SU with 10 points in the first half, his final two coming on an alley-oop lay-in on a pass from halfcourt by Carter-Williams. In the second half, it was more of the same. He stole a Nemanja Mikic pass and coasted down the court, reaching back for a strong one-handed slam to put SU up 63-38.

That one prompted the SU student section to sing Waiters ‘Happy Birthday’ during the next timeout, to the sixth man on what might soon be the No. 1 team in the country.

‘Just another great opportunity, being able to just go out there and play,’ Waiters said. ‘Play aggressive and play physically and that’s what I try to do.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on December 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr