NEW YORK — It’s only been 16 days, but Syracuse’s loss to Division II Le Moyne in an exhibition game seems like ancient history. Just ask shooting guard Andy Rautins.

‘We lost to Le Moyne?’ Rautins said. ‘That’s news to me.’

Then again, when Syracuse shellacks the No. 13 team in the country, it’s easy for Rautins to forget that slip-up.

In a dominating effort, Syracuse cruised to a 95-73 victory over California in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer last night at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y. The Orange (3-0) has now beaten its first three opponents by an average of 31.3 points.

Syracuse will now face No. 6 North Carolina in the championship tomorrow night at 7 p.m.; the Tar Heels defeated No. 15 Ohio State, 77-73, in the other semifinal game.

‘I think the loss really put us back into place, I think we had a little bit of clout that we didn’t deserve to have,’ Rautins said. ‘This isn’t the Sweet 16 team of last year, we lost some guys so we didn’t really have an identity the first couple of weeks we started playing. I think now we found ourselves a bit and we’ve been fired up ever since and we’re not going to look back.’

For barely two minutes Thursday night, California played better than the Orange. The Golden Bears (2-1) had a 5-0 lead and were hitting their shots.

Once Syracuse scored its first points on a Rick Jackson free throw, the momentum changed and it was all Syracuse from there as the Orange used a 17-4 run to take a 17-9 lead that it never relinquished.

SU’s offense and defense were stingy all night and never let California seriously entertain the thought of a comeback. Syracuse led, 44-33, at the half and led by as much as 24 in the second half, much to the delight of a pro-Orange crowd.

Offensively, Syracuse moved the ball around and found ways to consistently get to the free throw line. Syracuse had eight players with eight points or more. Scoop Jardine led the way with a career-high 22 points, mostly by slicing and dicing to the rim.

The Orange offense consistently made an effort to get the ball to the hoop and draw fouls, which helped account for the 19-5 free-throw advantage the Orange had in the first half. Syracuse pushed the ball to the rim, and California rewarded it by sending the Orange to the line time after time.

‘I think that’s what hurt them, getting the ball inside,’ Wes Johnson said. ‘Then our big guys knocking down free throws helped too and I think getting the ball inside and them being effective down low got (California) into foul trouble. (California was) trying to be more aggressive than they should have been got them in trouble.’

Defensively, the 2-3 zone was solid again. Outside of Jerome Randle, who shot 9-of-17 for 25 points, Syracuse did not let any Golden Bears’ shooter find rhythm. California did not play with arguably its best player, Theo Robertson.

Johnson appeared to be jumping out of ‘The World’s Most Famous Arena,’ swatting six shots. His block of Jorge Gutierrez with California trailing 33-23 led to a free throw on the other end by Jardine, a three-point swing with the game in the balance.

California struggled to get the ball inside with Jackson, Arinze Onuaku and Johnson covering plenty of space. Jardine and Rautins were active on the outside, not letting California’s multiple-pass possessions lead to points. California ended up settling too often for mid-range jump shots.

‘You gotta give some credit to Randle, he was hitting some deep 3’s,’ Jardine said. ‘But other than that, we were playing defense. I think our defense was the key to everything and I don’t remember how many steals we had, but we were active getting steals, me and Andy, and that was helping us out a lot.’

Syracuse entered tonight’s game the supposed underdog, but after 40 minutes of action, there was no doubt which was the better team. While California didn’t resemble a top-caliber team, the Orange clicked on all cylinders.

Quite a turn around from that loss that doesn’t register to Rautins anymore.

‘There are times we could’ve played better within each game which is a positive for us,’ Rautins said. ‘I know we’re not trying to peak now, we still got work to do and it’s great that we are playing the basketball we are while we’re still learning to play with each other. I think we’re going to be a dangerous team in the weeks to come as well.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on November 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm