After the game, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim and three players echoed the same reaction to center Baye Moussa Keita’s hustle-filled performance.

“Baye’s great.”

Said Boeheim, guards Trevor Cooney and Tyler Ennis and forward C.J. Fair. It was as if Keita’s strong post defense and novel hustle is simply what they expect.

Because, frankly, it is.

“Baye’s good every game. He does what he does,” Boeheim said. “He’s active and a tremendous defensive player. Every year we’ve had him he’s helped us and he helps us win.”

In No. 2 Syracuse’s (12-0) 78-62 win over No. 8 Villanova (11-1) in front of 28,135 in the Carrier Dome on Saturday, Keita breathed energy into a listless SU team in the first half and was a stalwart in the paint with Rakeem Christmas and DaJuan Coleman looking on from the bench.

Keita held Wildcats forward JayVaughn Pinkston — who was averaging 16.5 points per game heading into the game — to a measly three points, which came when Keita wasn’t even in the game.

“Every time I go in I try and pick the energy up,” Keita said. “It’s what I bring to the table and we needed that today.”

Christmas picked up two early fouls and Coleman sat the entirety of the second half because — as Boeheim said after the game — his knee was bothering him. Boeheim also said that with Villanova’s small and speedy lineup, he only wanted to play one big man at a time, which turned into 23 minutes for the lanky center.

In the first half, Keita tipped in a Tyler Ennis miss in the thick of Syracuse’s game-changing 20-0 run. When he got to the middle of the zone on the other end of the floor he slowly lifted his arms above his head. And as his arms rose, so did the Syracuse crowd, which had been stunned by the Orange’s uncharacteristically slow start.

“We count on him coming off the bench,” point guard Tyler Ennis said. “We expect that from him everyday.”

Aside from the tip-in — Keita’s only two points — his presence was felt on the defensive end. He forced Pinkston to travel late in the first, and with the Orange pulling away at the end of the second, he altered shot after shot and added two blocks to his stat line.

His second and final block came on Villanova’s final possession when he pinned Kris Jenkins’ lay up against the backboard.

When the final buzzer sounded he gave a huge fist bump and a celebratory cry.

“People probably thought we were done after our start,” Keita said. “So there were a lot of emotions at the end.”

Published on December 28, 2013 at 8:20 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse