The looks Syracuse was getting didn’t change. The Orange offense produced open shots throughout the first half. But early on, SU simply wasn’t converting.

Syracuse didn’t need to change anything in terms of how it was running its sets. All it needed to do was knock down those wide-open looks.

And near the five-minute mark in the first half, the Orange started doing just that.

‘We were getting great looks that we usually knock down,’ SU forward Kris Joseph said. ‘And we got the same looks later on that half and we did knock them down. Sometimes, that’s how the cookie crumbles. But we picked it back up and went on a 19-0 run.’

No. 1 Syracuse poured in 19 straight points during the final six minutes before halftime to propel the Orange to a comfortable 80-61 win over Tulane (11-2) Thursday night in front of 18,679 at the Carrier Dome. SU (13-0) struggled to connect on its open looks early but started burying those shots late. The 19-0 run into halftime included five 3-pointers by three different players while the Orange defense suffocated the Green Wave at the other end to pick up a win in its final nonconference game of the season.

The Orange opens up Big East play Dec. 28 against Seton Hall.

‘I thought offensively we had a very, very good first half,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I think we really moved the ball and did a lot of good things. We executed very well in the first half and took control of the game.’

Even though SU’s offense ran smoothly from the get-go, the Orange simply struggled to convert on the opportunities it had. Syracuse made just seven field goals through the first 14 minutes of action, allowing the Green Wave to hang around despite its own offensive deficiencies.

But that quickly changed after Joseph buried his first triple of the day.

With SU holding on to a 22-19 lead, Brandon Triche gathered his own miss and drove into the paint. He flipped a pass out to Joseph, who was standing all alone on the left side behind the 3-point line. The senior had missed a couple of open looks earlier but drained this one to extend the lead to six.

‘I feel like when one person gets it going, everyone else gets it going,’ junior James Southerland said. ‘If someone hits a big shot or a 3, I feel like everyone’s more focused, more involved and more active. It gets everybody going.’

Joseph’s 3 did just that to spark the decisive run before halftime.

After a Scoop Jardine layup on a fast break, Triche knocked down a 3-pointer of his own to put the lead at 30-19. Southerland then got into the mix with a shot from deep one minute later. Both he and Triche added one more long-range jumper along with a Baye Keita dunk to all but put the game out of reach.

All of that was a result of SU running its offense to perfection. Each of those 19 points came off assists from teammates willing to make the extra pass.

‘We executed well and got good shots,’ Boeheim said. ‘We shared the ball and got three or four really good extra pass plays where everybody got a 3. It was just good ball movement and getting the ball to the open man. Guys made shots.’

With that sudden burst before halftime, Syracuse carried a 41-19 advantage into the break. Tulane never got within 14 points in the second half, and Southerland said the Orange was pretty much on cruise control in the final 20 minutes.

With the win, SU completed its nonconference schedule undefeated for the second year in a row. And Boeheim feels his team is ready for the challenges ahead.

‘I think we’ve done what we had to do,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s nice to get to this point and not have a loss. … Once the conference comes, the competition steps way, way up. I think we’re prepared for that.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on December 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm