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Wednesday, Jan. 5 7:30pm ET
Orangemen win 10th straight at home | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- Syracuse struggled for a change on Wednesday night. Rutgers then found out just how good the Orangemen can be. Despite a sluggish first half -- no points and no rebounds from center Etan Thomas and only two points from point guard Jason Hart -- the Orangemen (No. 8 ESPN/USA Today, No. 7 AP) broke loose in the second half behind the inspired play of Damone Brown and beat the Scarlet Knights 93-74 in the Big East opener for both teams. Brown had 21 points and 13 rebounds, both career highs, and scored seven straight points early in the second half to break open a close game as Syracuse remained unbeaten in 10 games, all at home. "This team has a lot of weapons," said Brown, whose flurry came with Thomas on the bench getting an earful from coach Jim Boeheim. "It's more than just Jason, Etan and Ryan (Blackwell). We've got people on the bench that can make plays. That's what we've been doing this year." On this night, it also included Preston Shumpert, who scored 16 points, 13 in the first half. "It's a big job for us to come off the bench and add a spark to the game," said Shumpert, who was 3-of-4 from 3-point range in the first half. "Every challenge we just take head on." "The only way we were in the game at halftime was because of Preston," Boeheim added. The Scarlet Knights (8-5), who led only once, managed to stay close until Brown's flurry. They trailed 42-37 at halftime. "The team we played tonight, I think, is the real elite team in this league," said freshman Todd Billet, who had eight points and three assists for the Scarlet Knights. "And we were able to play with them for 30 minutes. That has to tell us something." A steal and fast-break layup by Tony Bland gave Syracuse a 66-55 lead with 11:17 left. A flagrant foul by Hart on Dahntay Jones threatened to halt the Syracuse surge. Jones hit both free throws and Rashod Kent followed with a dunk to make it 66-59 with 10:25 left. "I thought we played at a pretty high level in the first half," Rutgers coach Kevin Bannon said. "But when they go to the bench, they come in with two good shooters. We lost them." Hart quickly redeemed himself, though, feeding Thomas for an easy layup, then scored himself off a steal by Bland to restore the double-digit lead. Syracuse shot 52.9 percent for the game, making 37 of 70 shots and getting 31 assists. Jeff Greer led the Scarlet Knights with 16 points, while Jones and Joel Salvi each had 13 and Kent 12. Hart had 11 points and nine assists for Syracuse, and Thomas finally got going in the second half, finishing with 17 points. But he had only four rebounds. "Whenever I caught the ball, there were two people around me," said Thomas, who was fighting a cold. "I tried to look for the open man, but when other guys are knocking down their shots, it's really hard for people to double-team me. Everybody kind of stepped it up, and that opened things up for me." | ALSO SEE Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
AUDIO/VIDEO   Jason Hart floats to the rim with a left-handed layup.avi: 739 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||