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BOX SCORE
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Syracuse Orangemen became increasingly
antsy as they waited for their turn to take the court in the NCAA
Midwest Regional.
"We were anxious. We wanted to get out there and play and as we
sat in the locker room, we got more butterflies," point guard
Jason Hart said. "But that's college basketball."
|  | | Syracuse center Etan Thomas dunks two of his 16 points. |
After watching Kentucky survive in a double-overtime thriller
against St. Bonaventure, the Orangemen didn't provide much drama in
a 79-65 victory over 13th-seeded Samford on Thursday.
Etan Thomas and Ryan Blackwell controlled the inside and Preston
Shumpert and Hart handled things on the perimeter as the
fourth-seeded Orangemen rolled into Saturday's second round against
Kentucky. The fifth-seeded Wildcats held off St. Bonaventure 85-80 in a marathon that delayed the second game by 30 minutes.
"I tried to keep them away from it," Syracuse coach Jim
Boeheim said. "We snuck out and watched some of that. We were
really ready to come out and when we didn't, I think it hurt us a
little bit."
That was hard to tell because Thomas scored all the points as
the Orangemen (25-5) took a 7-3 lead at the outset. They didn't
look like a team that had lost five of its last 10 games after a
19-0 start.
"I think we wanted to come out with more intensity," said
Thomas, who had 16 points despite sitting out much of the second
half after picking up three quick fouls. "That was one of our
goals. We wanted to set the tone from the beginning and that's what
we did."
Samford coach Jimmy Tillette said of Thomas, "I thought he was
quite a force at both ends of the floor, especially defensively."
When the Orangemen weren't hammering the smaller Bulldogs
(21-11) with Thomas and Blackwell (11 points), they were relying on
the perimeter shooting of Hart and Shumpert, who each scored 17
points.
Shumpert hit half of his six 3-point attempts, some from the
outer limits.
"I just wish he would get over halfcourt before he tries the
3," Boeheim cracked. "He's a scorer and obviously he gave us a
big, big lift today."
Hart also had six assists and five rebounds and controlled the
tempo when Thomas left the game.
"I got into a rhythm," Hart said. "I became much more
aggressive when he went out because I knew we needed more
offense."
Reed Rawlings scored 19 of his 28 points in the first half, but
Samford still trailed 37-30 at the break. Derrick Jones added 13
points and Marc Salyers 10.
Samford, seeded No. 13 after winning the Trans Atlantic Athletic
Conference tournament, returned all five starters from last year's
embarrassing 69-43 loss to St. John's in its first NCAA appearance.
The Bulldogs trailed 15-0 and didn't score in the opening 10
minutes.
They again fell behind early, but didn't fade until the final
minutes.
"We felt much more comfortable than last year," forward Will
Daniel said. "But we let them get offensive rebounds and
putbacks."
The Orangemen led by as many as 10 points in each half, but
every time the lead hit double figures the Bulldogs made a run.
A 9-2 spurt -- fueled by 3-pointers by Jones and Salyers --
brought Samford as close as 49-46 with 13:14 remaining. But the
Orangemen countered on Griffin's free throw and a pair of baskets
by Hart to push the lead to seven.
On top 56-50, Syracuse -- which hit 67 percent of its shots from
the field in the second half and finished at 55 percent -- scored 17
of the next 25 points. Blackwell scored six points during the run
that made it 73-58.
Samford, which led the nation in field-goal percentage at 50.3
percent, was seldom able to get the ball inside and ended up at 41
percent (21-of-51).
"Our inability to defend was really the problem," Tillette
said. "This was not our best game."
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