One year ago, Tyler Ennis came to the Carrier Dome for Midnight Madness as a recruit. He watched point guard Michael Carter-Williams throw alley-oops as a packed student section exploded for the return of the biggest thing on campus.

On Friday, Ennis returned. This time, it was his turn to dish the dimes. A cross-court scoop pass in transition for Trevor Cooney. A knee-high bouncer through two defenders to Tyler Roberson. Even a three-quarter court chest pass, zipped over the retreating defense into the waiting hands of Roberson.

“It was good to get out in the Dome and get some experience playing out here,” Ennis said to the crowd after the game.

The freshman point guard, who Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said will play 38 minutes per game this year, made his Dome debut at Orange Madness on Friday. He finished — unofficially — with 10 points and six assists in the 18-minute scrimmage, helping to open up Cooney for his scrimmage-best 23-point shooting display.

Cooney hit from all around the arc, draining five 3-pointers for the Orange squad, which won 55-46. C.J. Fair led the White team with 16 points.

Overall, the Orange looked sharp, something Boeheim said he expected given the two extra weeks the NCAA allotted teams to practice this season.

“We’re way ahead of where we would be,” Boeheim said at the team’s media day earlier in the day Friday. “That doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to get further than we would want to get.

“I think the key is to use what we’ve done and what we’ve been able to do with these early practices and to keep building on those as we go forward so we don’t plateau and we don’t stay here.”

At the event, Ennis was the first SU player introduced at 9 p.m. While others twisted and twirled out of the blow-up tunnel and through the artificial fog, Ennis walked forthrightly, both fists held high.

Fellow freshman B.J. Johnson followed before the rest of the players and assistant coaches walked out. Then Boeheim made a classy debut.

He rolled into the Dome in an oversized yellow taxi. Stepping out of the right rear door, Boeheim waved to the crowd and strode onto the court as the student section erupted.

The team watched a highlight video from last season before returning members were given their Final Four rings. Then the action started.

Rosters

Orange: Rakeem Christmas, DaJuan Coleman, Trevor Cooney, Russ DeRemer, Tyler Ennis, B.J. Johnson, Tyler Roberson.

White: C.J. Fair, Michael Gbinije, Jerami Grant, Nolan Hart, Baye Moussa Keita, Albert Nassar, Chinonso Obokoh, Ron Patterson.

After Cooney found DaJuan Coleman for an early dunk, Cooney sparked a 3-point barrage. Michael Gbinije, Johnson and Ron Patterson all followed as the Orange team raced out to a 14-8 lead.

Fair, whose shot looked sharp from the paint to the perimeter, canned a 3 to pull White ahead 17-16, but after an Ennis tip-in, Orange ran away.

With 1:45 left in the first half, Ennis grabbed a defensive rebound and raced up the court in transition. At the free-throw line, he swung a waist-high, underhand pass from his left hand into Cooney’s waiting palms on the right wing. Swish.

That helped Orange take a 29-22 lead into the break.

Cooney stayed red hot in the second half, hitting a pair of 3s in the early minutes.

Then when Ennis sucked in the defense on a drive with 4:45 left in the second half, he found Cooney on the left wing  for a long 2-pointer.

With less than a minute left, the clock bumped up to add an additional two minutes of play as the crowd cheered all the way through the final buzzer.

Gbinije wins dunk contest over late-entry Christmas

Originally, Johnson, Patterson and Gbinije were the only entries into Syracuse’s annual dunk contest. But after Johnson and Patterson struggled to throw down successful dunks in the preliminary round, junior Rakeem Christmas stepped off the sideline and asked for a ball.

Jogging in from the right side, he leapt with the ball in his right hand, swung it around in the air and crammed it in with his left.

But Gbinije – who took a Nolan Hart pass off the side of the backboard for a baseline slam in his first dunk – hammered home a ferocious windmill in the finals. And Christmas, after setting up two young fans underneath the basket, bricked his dunk after clearing them.

Sykes, Peterson lead women’s White team to scrimmage win

Brittney Sykes and freshman Alexis Peterson scored four points each as the White team edged the Blue team 10-7 in the women’s scrimmage.

After a rough first 1:45 filled with missed layups and turnovers, both teams found their rhythm in the eight-minute scrimmage. Rachel Coffey led the Blue squad with five points.

Published on October 18, 2013 at 11:21 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1