Syracuse stretched its lead to 31 points by halftime and eased to a 96-54 victory against Division II national champion Florida Southern in the Carrier Dome on Sunday afternoon. Malachi Richardson led all Syracuse scorers with 18 points and five others finished in double figures.

Here are three quick observations from the Orange’s last tune-up before opening the regular season against Lehigh next Friday.

Tyler the creator

Tyler Roberson hit two foul-line jump shots in the first half, which accounted for an otherwise meaningless four points of his 10 total. The pair of scores, though, served as another indication of the junior forward’s expanding game.

All summer he worked on pushing his shooting touch out toward the perimeter to fit the expanding demands of the power forward position. Those flashes on Sunday accompanied a five-rebound, four-steal and four-assist effort for Syracuse’s most impressive post player on a day where Dajuan Coleman looked rusty on both offense and defense.

Turn down

Jim Boeheim yelled at point guard Michael Gbinije to go to the ball on an inbounds play under Syracuse’s own basket. Florida Southern was pressing Gbinije and the senior had the ball tipped away, and off him, right when he caught it.

Gbinije turned the ball over four times to contribute to Syracuse’s 15 total turnovers and each of the Orange’s starters minus Coleman gave the ball away at least twice.

The Orange stole the ball a total of 19 times itself, but a Division-II opponent was about the only thing from making SU pay for 10 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.

New and improved

Kaleb Joseph continues to show vast improvement, his aggressive chest pumps indicative of a player with renewed confidence despite being relegated to the bench at the start of games.

He hit two early 3s against the Mocs, screaming “Let’s go,” after his second from behind the arc led to a Florida Southern timeout. The sophomore seems to have found a niche behind Gbinije, logging a productive 13 points and three assists in 15 minutes on Sunday after an 11-point outing last Monday.

Published on November 8, 2015 at 4:09 pm