C.J. Fair flashed into the middle of the St. John’s defense. He caught a pass from Kris Joseph at the free-throw line, faked left, took one dribble to his right and buried a 15-foot jumper.

The next Syracuse possession saw Joseph attack the rim quickly after a missed shot by the Red Storm at the other end. His layup attempt before SJU was set hit nothing but the backboard, but Fab Melo was right there for a put-back dunk in the middle of an unorganized defense.

Two trips down the floor: one for a quick-strike basket and the other a calculated effort of offensive execution. Either way, the result was the same. Points for Syracuse.

‘When you’re playing that style of game, it’s a little more enjoyable,’ SU assistant coach Gerry McNamara said. ‘I played in those types of games myself, and it’s so fun going up and down.

After three brutal, grind-it-out games against Notre Dame, Cincinnati and West Virginia, the Orange finally had a chance to run and gun against St. John’s on Saturday. The result was 95 points on an efficient 55.7 percent shooting and a 25-point victory for SU.

And perhaps most impressive for No. 2 Syracuse (23-1, 10-1 Big East) was its terrific half-court execution — a product of having already scored easy baskets in transition. Come Wednesday against No. 12 Georgetown (18-4, 8-3 Big East) in the Carrier Dome at 7 p.m., the Orange will try to dictate tempo and push the ball against a team that favors a much slower pace.

Part of Saturday’s pedal-to-the-metal pace was a product of St. John’s desire to play fast. Like Syracuse, the Red Storm prefers going up and down the court for quick baskets.

But Wednesday’s game is truly a clash of opposites. The Orange ranks first in the Big East in points per game with 78.1. Georgetown ranks first in the Big East in scoring defense, yielding a mere 58.6 points per game.

‘We played our style of game today,’ Fair said after the win over St. John’s. ‘We can switch it up, but we like to get out and run and score a lot. Today we got like 90-something, so that was a good job.’

The 95 points scored by the Orange on Saturday was its second-highest point total of the season. And it came after three games in which it failed to top 63 points. Syracuse was 2-1 during that stretch.

Thus, Wednesday’s game becomes a battle of will. More specifically, which team can impose its style of play on the other.

Waiters said after the game Saturday that getting up and down the floor was a nice change of pace for Syracuse. Notre Dame and Cincinnati both ran burn offenses against the Orange, taking the shot clock down under 10 seconds on nearly every possession.

The former spells fun. The latter spells frustration and SU’s only loss of the season.

‘We’re going to run into another team who is going to do the same thing, so we have to be ready for that also,’ Waiters said of the slow-down offense.

Georgetown runs a methodical Princeton-style offense, so the Hoyas will likely employ a similar strategy of trying to control the clock.

No team has been able to keep up with the Orange in a fast-break game this season. Providence tried, but Syracuse simply burned the Friars to the tune of 51 second-half points.

And Saturday’s 54-point second-half performance was another example that caught the attention of head coach Jim Boeheim.

‘We moved the basketball,’ Boeheim said. ‘We just got really good shots every time down the court, and that was the best part for me of watching the second half, how easy we got the ball down and found people and found good shots.’

McNamara said in games without any fast-break opportunities, it’s much easier for frustration to set in. But the addition of even a little showtime offense seems to energize this overly athletic bunch.

The stat sheet says Syracuse managed just 10 fast-break points against the Red Storm on Saturday — a poor reflection of the truly up-tempo nature of the game.

Ideally, point guard Scoop Jardine said, the Orange can force Georgetown to play that type of game Wednesday.

‘Nothing scares me about their team,’ Jardine said. ‘We just know we have to come in and play Syracuse basketball. If we do that, it should be a great game, and I think we should get a win.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

 

Published on February 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13