Scoop Jardine will admit that playing against Scottie Reynolds amped him up. Reynolds, the potential Big East Player of the Year, is widely considered the best point guard in the conference and has devoured opposing guards over and over.

‘Scottie’s a great player,’ Jardine said. ‘When you try and be a great player in this league, you have to go against the best players, so I pride myself on that.’

When the final buzzer sounded, though, Jardine had gone toe to toe with one of the best in the nation, perhaps even winning the battle by helping his team to victory. Jardine matched Reynolds point for point in Syracuse’s 95-77 win over Villanova Saturday night at the Carrier Dome. Jardine had his best game offensively since November, scoring 16 points on 6-for-15 shooting, along with seven rebounds.

‘He was tremendous,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He hit the 3 right off the bat, and he made a couple other plays. He actually misfired on a couple of drives, and I thought he could’ve finished better, but he was aggressive and he played with a lot of confidence.’

Jardine was offense-oriented the whole night, continuously trying to find scoring opportunities and convert. On the defensive front, he was able to grab rebounds and ignite Syracuse’s strong transition game.

He helped Syracuse claw back into the game after Villanova jutted to an early 23-14 lead. He nailed a 3 from the left corner to cut the lead to six, before racing from basket to basket after a missed 3-point shot by Corey Fisher for a layup, trimming the deficit to four.

Later in the first half, Jardine again hit a 3-point shot, this time from the left-center area behind the arc. This was only the third time all season that he has hit two 3-point shots in a game. He says he has been working on that aspect of his game, and it paid off Saturday.

‘He backed up off me, and I was able to knock shots down,’ Jardine said. ‘I’m going to keep shooting it if he keeps backing off.’

No Wes, no Andy, no problem

There have been games earlier this season where Syracuse would’ve lost if Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins shot a combined 5-of-20 from the floor. Saturday night, though, it just meant that other teammates had to pick up the slack, and they more than met the challenge.

While Johnson and Rautins struggled from the field, Rick Jackson, Arinze Onuaku, Kris Joseph and Jardine all scored double-digit points to help lead a balanced attack in Syracuse’s win. Johnson and Rautins also scored in double digits with 14 and 12, respectively, to give the Orange six players scoring 10 points or more.

‘It’s a team effort,’ Rautins said. ‘Other people step up, and we find ways to win. Just because we don’t shoot well it doesn’t mean we’re not going to play well in other aspects of the game, and that’s our whole mentality, to help the team in any way you can. That’s what we do time and again.’

Though Rautins and Johnson both finished with double digits, that was more a result of hitting free throws, as eight of Johnson’s 14 points came at the line, and four of Rautins’ 12 did as well. Outside of a pair of 3s by Rautins, the duo never seemed to find its groove offensively, missing a slew of jumpers.

With the way the four others played, it didn’t make a difference. Onuaku and Jackson couldn’t be stopped offensively in the paint, and Joseph and Jardine were catalysts off the bench. There wasn’t one star on this night, but a combined team effort that resulted in a blowout win over a Top 10 team.

‘I think that’s what this whole well-rounded team, this chemistry comes in with us,’ Johnson said. ‘Kris was seeing stuff on the court, Scoop was coming in and giving us the spark with the jump shots and A.O. and Rick were being a beast around the basket. Me and Andy’s shot weren’t falling, so we really had to do stuff to get to the line.’

This and That

Villanova shot 52.5 percent in the Dome last year, but just 41.8 percent this year …. Syracuse had a 49-40 advantage in rebounding, and a 33-18 advantage in free-throw attempts …. Reynolds hit half of the Wildcats’ 3-point shots, shooting 4-of-8. The rest of the team was 4-for-20 …. Syracuse will win the Big East title outright with a win either against St. John’s or Louisville.

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on February 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm