Ron Patterson timed his jump perfectly to intercept Devin Cherry’s inbounds pass from the baseline, then drew a foul. On Cornell’s next time down the court, Tyler Roberson and Patterson trapped Galal Cancer in the corner and forced his errant pass into the hands of Trevor Cooney, which turned into a two-handed slam at the other end.

When head coach Jim Boeheim walked out to the podium following Syracuse’s 85-67 win over Long Beach State on Sunday, he said the defensive effort was “really, really not good”.

But on Wednesday, the Orange showed signs of turning that around.

“We wanted to do a better job defensively tonight,” Boeheim said. “I think we did… Our defense held us up.”

After Syracuse beat Cornell, Boeheim said his team brought the intensity that it lacked three days prior. The Orange held the Big Red without a point for the first seven minutes and to only five made field goals in the first half as SU routed CU, 61-44, in its final nonconference game.

The Orange (9-4) now hopes that showing carries over when it opens up Atlantic Coast Conference play at Virginia Tech (8-5) on Saturday at noon in Blacksburg, Virginia.

“We wanted to do a better job in the high post since the last game we did a very poor job in the high post area,” Boeheim said. “We did a much, much better job contesting the ball.”

Cornell could do little besides pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock forced it to hoist up contested long-range attempts. The Big Red shot just 4-of-22 from behind the arc, the second-worst mark this season for an SU opponent.

Boeheim said that his team got up to the shooters and never let them get comfortable. With 16 minutes left in the second half, Cornell had recovered the ball off a turnover and was passing it around the perimeter.

The Big Red made seven passes without even attempting to penetrate the top of the SU zone. The eighth pass, though, went off Cancer’s fingertips and into the hands of SU point guard Kaleb Joseph, who scored easily on the fast break.

“We’re getting better at executing defensively in the half-court set,” Joseph said.

Cooney said that in a game like Wednesday, when Syracuse was struggling to score on its own end, not having many lapses defensively was the key to eventually pulling away.

The defense proved to be Syracuse’s best offense on a night when the team — aside from Rakeem Christmas — struggled to shoot in the half-court set. The Orange scored 22 points off turnovers and 12 on the fast break.

“Defense was good,” Cooney said. “Our movement was good. It could have been a little bit better, but we kept the ball out of the high post, which is what they wanted to do. That’s what we tried to do the entire time.”

The Big Red’s shooting ability is hardly comparable to the offensive forces that await the Orange in conference play, but Boeheim seemed relieved to close out the year and the nonconference season on a positive note.

After miscues against LBSU, the Orange came in with a defensive game plan to force Cornell to the perimeter. And regardless of the quality of opponent, Boeheim was happy to see his team execute what it set out to do before the heart of the schedule comes.

“Our defense still has to get better,” Boeheim said. “But it is getting better.”

Published on January 2, 2015 at 5:26 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3