DURHAM, N.C. — Rakeem Christmas stood in place and stared down his one-way path to the Syracuse bench.

For the second time in five nights, Christmas picked up a fifth foul and sauntered down the length of the court to grab a front-row seat for the rest of the game.

In a five-point win over then-No. 9 Notre Dame on Tuesday, Christmas exited with 5:18 to play and the Orange managed to hold on without him. In a 19-point loss to No. 4 Duke on Saturday, he fouled out with 9:42 left and all but put the punctuation mark on a game Syracuse never gripped.

“He’s our leader offensively and defensively,” SU shooting guard Trevor Cooney said on Saturday. “And when we can’t get him going it’s hard to get the rest of us going.”

That becomes especially hard when Christmas is out of the game, which the Orange (18-11, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) can’t afford when it hosts No. 2 Virginia (27-1, 15-1) for a 7 p.m. game in the Carrier Dome on Monday night. To keep Christmas — who will be the only scholarship senior playing his last home game — out of foul trouble against the defensively savvy Cavaliers, SU’s guards said they have to protect him by stopping penetration from the perimeter.

This is the first time Christmas has fouled out in back-to-back games since his freshman year, when he fouled out against Seton Hall and then DePaul three days later. He’s managed to play 58 total minutes — the lowest of any two-game stretch in conference play — but has scored 25 points in the two contests despite averaging 18.1 per game on the season.

“Fouls happen,” SU forward B.J. Johnson said on Saturday. “I think whenever (Christmas) fouls out, it really hurts us but we have to play through it. It’s really not easy, though.”

Johnson, Cooney and SU forward Michael Gbinije all said that the rest of the zone has to keep opponents from getting into the middle where Christmas has to contest shots and defend the rim.

Penetration into the zone not only leads to perimeter players crashing into Christmas, but also forces the forward to step up and obstruct the lane to the basket. Often, guards draw the big man and dump bounces into the post — which sends Christmas recovering with limited control of his body.

Against the Blue Devils, two of his fouls came off the ball and another on the fast break, but the last two were products of Duke slicing through the zone in the half court. Without Christmas on the floor for the latter half of the second half, the Blue Devils defense ditched the paint, pushed even farther out onto Syracuse’s shooters and eliminated any hope of an SU comeback.

“We need to keep people in front better on defense,” Gbinije said after the Duke game. “A lot of times his fouls come with people driving on the guards. If we eliminate that, I think we eliminate some of Rak’s foul trouble.”

Without leading scorer Justin Anderson, one of the best spot-up shooters in the ACC, it is likely that Virginia will look into the high and low post to score against the Orange.

And with no postseason, the game against the Cavaliers is Christmas‘ last chance to prove himself against a top-flight opponent, which happens to boast one of the country’s stingiest defenses. He’ll also be honored in a senior day ceremony before the game in front of a crowd that has fully taken to his ascension into a premier scoring threat.

It will be a somber farewell if he finds himself in foul trouble for the third-straight game.

“I just need to stay out of foul trouble, I guess,” Christmas said after the Duke game.

As for what he can do differently to avoid fouling so often, Christmas rolled his eyes, shrugged and turned away from the question.

If he doesn’t find that answer, the end of his Carrier Dome career could very well play out with him looking on from the bench.

Published on March 2, 2015 at 12:15 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse