Austin Price took his time to shoot, pausing for a moment to collect himself as he embraced the space between him and the nearest defender. Jim Boeheim stood across the court with his hands in his pockets, only choosing to take them out to signal a timeout to the nearest referee when Price’s 3-pointer swished in, giving Lehigh a 9-8 lead to finish a 7-0 run.

There were 13 minutes and 14 seconds left in the first half. Lehigh didn’t make another shot. Twelve first-half turnovers and 21 first-half misses to go with just two made shots.

Syracuse sprinted into its locker room with a 20-point halftime lead.

“The first half was a little bit of an anomaly,” said SU head coach Jim Boeheim to start off his postgame press conference. “I wanted to use that word.

“We did play good defense in the first half, but they just weren’t in sync.”

Syracuse’s defense not only kept it afloat in the first half, it seemed to all but put Lehigh away. And when its stout defense broke down in the second half, it was clutch 3-point shooting from SU that put the Mountain Hawks (0-1) at arm’s length in a 57-47 opening-night win for Syracuse (1-0) on Friday in the Carrier Dome.

Lehigh connected on two shots in the first 23:03, only to make seven shots in the next 4:22. When that happened, three big 3-pointers from Kaleb Joseph, Malachi Richardson and eventually Michael Gbinije halted a Lehigh comeback that began with an 18-4 run to start the second half.

“We were fortunate enough to hit some big 3s at the end of the shot clock,” said Trevor Cooney, who finished with 13 points. “If you miss those 3s, maybe it’s a one or two possession game. You can’t let that happen.”

The first big shot came at the top of the key from Joseph. He looked for a pass, realized he was open and knocked down the three, screaming to whoever would listen on his way down the court. A 20-point lead had slimmed to six, and his three gave the Orange a little breathing room.

The next big shot came from Richardson. Syracuse hadn’t scored in more than three minutes. A tenuous nine-point lead was waiting to either shrivel with another Lehigh run or extended by another Syracuse 3. Richardson scored for the first time since early in the first half, and put the Orange up by 12 with 7:19 to play.

“I think we needed that,” Richardson said. “That was on the brink of them really getting back into the game.”

Gbinije’s 3 with 5:16 to play put the icing on the cake. His floater in the lane as the shot clock expired was Lehigh’s dagger.

The Orange was far from sharp. Seventeen turnovers led to 21 Mountain Hawk points. Ten points in the paint to Lehigh’s 26. Just 11 3-pointers made despite shooting 34. Lehigh’s a good team, Boeheim said, and they’ll beat good teams down the road.

But Syracuse was good where it counted and when it counted. Good defense in the first half turned into timely shooting in the second. And Syracuse won its season opener for the 12th straight year.

“I’d rather not have had this tough a game the first night,”Boeheim said. “But hopefully it will benefit us in the long run.”

Published on November 13, 2015 at 10:59 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3