Syracuse Orange crush St. John's, 95-70
by picodulce on Feb 4, 2012 2:17 PM EST
in St. John's Red Storm men's basketball
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PrintIn front of a sold out crowd - filled with Orange-clad partisans - Syracuse led by as much as 28 points in blowing out St. John's, 95-70.
The 95 points are a season high given up by the Red Storm. James Southerland and D`Angelo Harrison got into a small (mostly-verbal) altercation at the end. The Orange filled their highlight reel with all the sport dunks they could handle.
St. John's struggled in all facets of the game, allowing the Orange to get to almost 50% of their offensive rebounds, unable to stop the Syracuse jump shooting, and struggling to score inside the arc. D`Angelo Harrison kept the score more respectable, putting up 23 points on 5/11 shooting, adding 5 assists. Maurice Harkless had 15 with 8 rebounds, and Phil Greene matched his career-high from the last game at 14 with 4 assists - and only took 10 shots to do it. Amir Garrett added 9.
Syracuse set the tone early with the return of Fab Melo, who hit a new career high of 14 points, altering shots and providing the height that made life difficult for the Red Storm all game. The Johnnies found themselves taking contested jump shots against the 2-3 zone, and they aren't skilled enough yet for that to be a winning strategy.
Coming out of the half with a 41-27 lead, the Orange went on a running, dunking exhibition. Dion Waiters and C.J. Fair had 14 each; Kris Joseph and Michael Carter-Williams had 13. The Orange finished the game scoring 1.36 points per possession. The Red Storm were at a respectable 1 at the end, but were at .70 at the end of the first half - the level of offensive futility they had in the stretch of games before Villanova.
Syracuse improves to 23-1, 9-1 in the Big East, with a big matchup at home against Georgetown coming up next. St. John's falls to 10-13, 4-7 in the Big East. The Johnnies return to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday for a rematch against the Cincinnati Bearcats on ESPNU. That game will likely be much closer, much more competitive.
Takeaways:
Transition defense. St. John's has to do a better job at defending in transition. In the first half - before the Red Storm sent all of their players to press in the Syracuse backcourt - the Johnnies let Orange shooters spot up on the wings, and they took shots with impunity. They only hit 7/21, but there were open shots. It was a fast-paced game - 43 possessions in the first half - and that may have played a factor.
Free throw shooting has to improve. The Red Storm did manage to get to the free throw line 28 times... but struggled to hit in the first half, going 10/18. Harkless and Harrison combined for 4/10 shooting from the FT line in that half.
Throw away the tape. This was a predictably bad matchup. St. John's has two scorers, who are still learning consistency, and when they struggle, there aren't many options to pick them up. This was known to be a bad matchup, and there aren't a lot of things to take away from today's game besides the already-known - the team needs more players, and the team needs more height.
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Agreed
Pico, since D and Phil were fairly efficient on offense today, do you think we should have turned to them a little more to help with a comeback? Our defense was never good enough today to keep us in the game, but our offense wasn’t much to write home about either.
Not necessarily...
I mean, a lot of points were scored in garbage time, so I can’t say how effective they would be if Syracuse cared to play tough defense. Harrison was 1-3 from the field and well-marked in the first half… Greene was 2/5 and not really in the flow of the offense. It’s more of a nice night for Greene and continued positive returns from what he’s been doing in practice.
Everyone struggled. Without Moe Harkless and/ or Achiuwa to simulate an interior force, the offense looks pretty bad – as it has much of the year. But that’s part of watching a development year, so you can tell the fans that drift back how they’ve developed!
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Was at the game...
…very orange crowd. The newspapers have it as half and half, but Cuse probably had the slight edge. Because Cuse was so good, the orange fans were loud so that is part of it too. I do know that many STJ season ticket holders made a lot of money selling tickets to Cuse fans. Considering this is likely the last regular season game between the two at the Garden, Cuse fans were hungery to get to the Garden. But their departure to the ACC means they leave the Garden behind as well for the most part. Our guys played like five freshmen should against the Number 2 team in the country. Cuse is very big and long and their zone is really working well for them. Next year, this could be a very different game even at the Dome. Cuse loves to talk about owning the Garden and I get it. If I was from Syracuse or went to school there I would be looking to claim just about anywhere else as my city. But at the end of the day, we all know this is a Johnnies town and the Garden is St. John’s. We don’t need t-shirts or bus trips in for the one or two games we play there. And when we are hosting G’Town and Nova there in a few years, Cuse can welcome Wake Forrest and Boston College to the Dome. I’m sure it will be special for them. Everyone likes their basketball arena to actually be a football stadium.
I don't think they'll leave the Garden behind...
Much like Duke, they’ll work to schedule games in the Garden. And Brooklyn’s Barclay Center might even be an option for both teams; neither has an exclusive contract with NYC area teams…
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I gotta add...
I found the Dome to be a terrible place to watch a basketball game. Saw Cuse vs G’Town there from the nosebleeds. It’s distracting to have a whole football stadium to your right…
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Slight Edge?
Most thought easily 75-80% Cuse. Cuse will offer SJU the chance to continue the series. I actually would like an annual game in MSG with the seating split 50/50. If SJU declines, Cuse will ask Fordham, Iona, Seton Hall, etc… to play at MSG. The choice is your AD’s.
Much like Duke...
Cuse won’t have to ask a local team to meet them in the Garden. They’ll get a team with a national brand and/ or get into one of the many MSG-hosted early-season tourneys every year.
Lost in all of this vitriol is that both Cuse and St. John’s are losing an amazing, storied rivalry. Even if the two teams meet in an out-of-conference game… it just won’t be the same. A melancholy hello to an ex-girl/ boy, at best.
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Play at the Garden is expensive
And it makes no sense for Cuse to play anyone there. Duke sells the garden better than Cuse. Just look at the numbers at STJ games. Cuse STJ has not sold out the Garden in over a decade. Normally its about 14k. It costs STJ about 100k per game to lease the garden. STJ keeps the gate and some concession money. The school makes a profit at about the 9k mark in attendance. They will play the prseason NIT or something like that to get in there. There will be years where they don’t play there at all. It was a good rivalry, but I see no reason to keep it going now that they are going.
Thanks for that -
I didn’t know the financial outlays – and that they hadn’t sold out in a decade.
Still, I disagree about it making financial sense – imagine if Duke and Syracuse played there? They would sell out – even though Boeheim had said they wouldn’t play conference games in NYC, even if they had the chance. Money changes people’s opinions, as we know, so I wouldn’t rule that idea out… Duke already schedules non-con games in the NYC area – versus Washington this year, versus Gonzaga two years ago. And they participated in the Champions Classic as well.
St. John’s really has to win for a few years and take back the NY market.
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