Suffocated in a Rick Jackson/Kris Joseph sandwich, Columbia’s Josh Daniels was dead to rights. Yet somehow, the Lions’ spiny forward kept the play alive. A shot missed, Daniels rebounded. Another miss, another rebound.

Finally, Daniels kicked it out to a teammate, who nailed a 3-pointer. And the deficit was sliced to four. Merely 10 feet from the shooter, Jim Boeheim stood in awe. His arms spread vertically and his eyes spread wide, Syracuse’s head coach was speechless.

‘It’s tough when you’re, uh,’ said SU point guard Scoop Jardine , lowering his voice to near whisper, ‘playing after Thanksgiving. I ate too much of everything. Man, I had the best Thanksgiving. But we played down to the level of our competition.

‘Then, in the second half we kind of blew it open.’

Friday night’s speed bump – an 85-60 win over Columbia at the Carrier Dome – started ugly and ended with a bang delivered by Wes Johnson. Behind Johnson’s hot hand, No. 10 Syracuse (6-0) overcame a holiday hangover to dismantle the Lions (2-2). Johnson scored 26 points behind a slew of 3-pointers and alley oops.

Like previous games, SU started slow and cruised in the second half. And like previous games, it was the smiling Johnson who turned a close game into a circus.

‘We knew we had to come out with a different spark,’ Johnson said. ‘The first half, we came out real sluggish and weren’t playing with enough energy.’

The difference between the two teams was obvious. Columbia was severely undersized – a featherweight in a heavyweight’s ring. Its starters surrendered more than 60 pounds and seven inches to Arinze Onuaku, Rick Jackson and Wes Johnson underneath.

Still, size wasn’t a factor in the first half. Columbia found ways to swing the ball to its sniper early. With one entry pass inside SU’s 2-3 zone defense and one kick-out, the Lions got Noruwa Agho open looks. Agho, who came into the game shooting 70 percent from deep, hit a trio of 3’s to keep Columbia’s head above the water.

At halftime, SU only led by nine. As Syracuse shuffled into the locker room, Boeheim was jawing in Jardine’s ear. Eleven turnovers against an Ivy League school was unacceptable.

Then, reality set in.

‘We came out in the second half and were a little bit better defensively in finding the shooters and got on the boards better,’ Boeheim said. ‘We got some second-chance efforts we didn’t get in the first half.’

Athleticism took over. Physicality took over. But most importantly, Johnson took over. With his pterodactyl wingspan, Johnson attacked from all angles. He said his shooting stroke feels as good as ever thanks to extra work with assistant coach Rob Murphy before and after practice.

On Friday, it showed. The 6-foot-7 forward drilled two of his four 3’s early in the half to inflate SU’s mounting lead to 22. Moments later, he provided the dagger. Sophomore Kris Joseph shimmied into the lane – setting up a play the roommates discussed beforehand – and lofted the ball toward the rim.

Out of nowhere, Johnson swooped in for the two-handed flush. For a split-second, Johnson literally looked down at the rim.

‘Coming into high school, they said I was a great passer,’ Joseph said. ‘I still feel like I’m a great passer.’

Joseph paused.

‘And Wes has a 42-inch vertical, which makes my job a whole lot easier. All I have to do is put it up there.’

Johnson’s play was contagious, too.

Friday night marked a new chapter in the Chronicles of Mookie Jones, a quickly evolving subplot to SU’s undefeated start. Jones has been unhappy all season with his playing time. In the opener, he unleashed a verbal tirade on coaches after getting pulled. And in Syracuse’s win over Cornell Tuesday, Jones abruptly left for the locker room alone.

This game, Jones scored 12 points in 14 minutes. Like Johnson, he was 4-of-5 behind the arc. Each 3 triggered a roar from the student-less crowd of 20,166. While backpedaling after his third trifecta, Jones stared at the SU bench and smiled.

Coaches don’t have memories of him nailing big shots, Jones said. Sporting a shirt from a basketball tournament in high school, he tried to rationalize his fleeting playing time. That game-winning 3-pointer in the 2007 New York Federation is hazy to them.

‘So it takes a lot for him to put me in there, so I just need to keep building his confidence,’ Jones said. ‘Still to this day I’m ready to take that shot. Even when I have sat on the bench up to two minutes (left), I’m ready to take that shot.’

For now, Johnson will take ‘that shot’ the most. Six games in, he has earned that right. Again, the junior transfer proved to be Syracuse’s go-to scorer. When the going got tough, Johnson was SU’s crutch.

Jones knows this. He shakes his head at a loss for words describing Johnson’s performance.

‘Wes is gifted, Wes is gifted,’ Jones repeated. ‘He’s been a big influence on my game and everybody else here.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on November 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm