As Eastern Michigan head coach Rob Murphy entered the Carrier Dome, he warmly greeted a Stadium Control security guard he knew well with a long, drawn out handshake. He hugged fans and chatted with them during pre-game warmups. He was familiar with seemingly everyone he interacted with.

Syracuse was familiar with him, and his defense, too. Murphy spent seven years as an assistant at SU from 2004-11 and also runs a 2-3 zone.

On Monday night, the Orange shredded the scheme it runs every day in practice.

“We made a lot of shots and when we got the ball in the right places, we got some really good looks,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “… we get those open looks, we can make those”

Syracuse (7-4) cruised to a dominant 105-57 win over the Eagles (6-5) in front of 16,778. The Orange found holes on the perimeter and sliced through EMU’s defense with effective ball movement. SU finished with 34 assists (four short of a program record set in 1973) and 15 3-pointers, both season-highs.

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MORE COVERAGE 

• The Final Word: Beat writers discuss Syracuse’s blowout victory over Eastern Michigan
• What we learned from Syracuse’s 105-57 victory over Eastern Michigan
• John Gillon on Twitter trolls: ‘If I really suck, we can meet up any time and play one-on-one’

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The Orange got off to an emphatic start and never looked back. Less than four minutes into the game, John Gillon found Frank Howard slashing to the hoop from the left wing. Howard threw down the dunk, giving SU a 10-2 lead and forcing Eastern Michigan to take a timeout.

“We moved the ball, we got good looks,” Boeheim said. “I thought we passed the ball well. I thought both John and Frank both found guys, found people open and we made shots.”

For the first 24 minutes, 26 seconds of the game, every Syracuse field goal was assisted. The streak ended when Gillon intercepted a pass at the top of the key and went coast-to-coast for an easy layup. But until that point, the Orange was perfect in using passes to set up makes.

Syracuse worked the ball inside with Tyler Lydon and Taurean Thompson in the high post, allowing them to also distribute to the perimeter when Eastern Michigan’s defense collapsed on them.

Point guards Howard (11 assists) and Gillon (nine) combined for 20 helpers and it was the Orange’s ability to dictate the Eagles’ defense with inside-out ball movement that opened up the offense.

“They kind of set the trend for the style of play that we were going to use for the night,” Andrew White said of SU’s post players, “which was unselfishness and sharing the ball.”

The most flashy play of the game came midway through the first half when Thompson set up in the high post with his back to the hoop. Immediately upon catching a pass from Howard, he flipped the ball toward the baseline without looking. Lydon caught it and dunked it in stride to push Syracuse’s lead to 26-8 as “oohs” and “ahhs” rained down from the crowd.

And simultaneously as the post players attracted Eastern Michigan’s attention, the Orange’s shooters banged 3s at will: White went 4-for-8 from deep while Tyus Battle went 4-for-7 and Gillon shot 3-for-7 behind the arc.

“They just did a great job of getting it in the high post, making good decisions, sharing the ball,” Murphy said, “and they hit a lot of long 3-point shots.”

Two days prior, the Orange faced a Georgetown team that gave its guards trouble as SU struggled to develop an offensive rhythm.

But Syracuse got exactly what it needed on Monday night, a blowout win and its most efficient offensive showing of the year.

“We play against zones, we’ve seen zones and we should be good against zones,” Boeheim said.

“And we were.”

Published on December 19, 2016 at 11:01 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds