It may as well have been exhibition game in December. This was too easy. Too much of a mismatch. Syracuse’s 101-55 win over lowly Maine on Saturday night at the Carrier Dome was pretty much any word you could conjure up in the dictionary outside of competitive – especially fun.

‘It was so much fun,’ shooting guard Andy Rautins said. ‘I was talking to Wes (Johnson) on the bench and saying ‘man, this is so much fun playing with this team.’ The way we move the ball, the way we play defense. We wanted to go out there and beat them by 100. It was a good team effort tonight.’

It wasn’t by 100, but a win by three digits was certainly not a far-fetched idea. Syracuse destroyed – one of many applicable verbs – Maine by 46 points to improve to 8-0 for the second straight season Saturday night at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse took a 60-12 lead into halftime and used a 34-2 run to end the first half, including a 32-0 run at one point that spanned 10:44.

‘It was really fun, especially going into the Florida game,’ Johnson said. ‘It was fun to go out there and play and compete and everybody seemed like they were clicking tonight. Everybody was hitting shots and everybody was playing defense well, so I think we had a well-rounded game tonight.’

This glorified practice for Thursday’s matinee contest with No. 13 Florida in the Big East/SEC Invitational was essentially over just three baskets into the game. Two quick lay-ups by Brandon Triche, including a nice spin move from the left side of the basket, and an easy lay-up by Arinze Onuaku gave Syracuse a 6-0 lead just 1:47 into the game. Triche led SU with 16 points.

Syracuse’s offense was nearly impeccable. Pull-up 3’s from the top of the arc swished in. Missed shots were followed with put-backs for easy points. Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins connected for another monstrous alley-oop, ignited by a behind-the-back pass from Triche to Rautins. Syracuse had a 29-10 over the Black Bears (3-4) and the game wasn’t even 10 minutes old.

‘We shot the ball well and when we make shots we’re difficult to defend and it opened up the inside,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We did a very good job of finding the right people and moving the ball. Very unselfish play and we made shots.’

The best part for Syracuse was that the fun hadn’t even begun. Syracuse went on a 34-2 run end to the half that led to a 48-point edge heading into the half. The fast-break dunks came out in full force. Scoop Jardine and James Southerland connected on 3’s. Meanwhile, the clock kept ticking. Maine’s football team had scored more first-half points (17) against the Orange than Maine.

The Black Bears couldn’t buy a bucket until late in the game. Syracuse’s stingy 2-3 zone defense kept Maine shooting long-range 3-pointers and mid-range jumpers, and Maine put up more than its fair share of air balls. In one great shot, a jumper careened off the neck of the hoop connecting to the back of the glass. Yes, the neck of the hoop. No wonder why Boeheim said Maine helped SU hold the Black Bears to 12 points.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. The Boo birds came out with the clock dwindling toward zero at the end of the first half. Maine’s Sean McNally shot a close-range shot that was headed in before Rick Jackson swatted it away and goaltending was called, prompting a chorus of boos. Maine ended the half with 12 points on 4-of-31 shooting.

‘I don’t think we realized it was a 32-0 run,’ Rautins said. ‘We were just out there playing and playing hard and I don’t think we concentrated much on the score like we don’t concentrate on our ranking or anything like that we got out there and play.’

Maine played more competitively in the second half, but didn’t quite have a 48-point comeback in it. Syracuse played street ball at times in the second half, just throwing up haphazard shots and neglecting to play defense at times.

The second-string unit played massive minutes in the game, with James Southerland scoring 10 points in 20 minutes off the bench. Only one starter, Rick Jackson, played more than 20 minutes.

The players were loose after the game, sitting down in their new plush couches in the locker room to relax. They had just made a Division I team look like a high school squad, and are rolling headed into its first game not in the state of New York.

But was this the most fun the team’s had all season? Maybe to some. But Jardine seems to remember the last time the Orange played a ranked opponent away from the Carrier Dome measuring up quite well.

‘The Garden was pretty fun,’ Jardine said. ‘But (this) was pretty fun. We were all clicking. All season man, we got off to a great season and got to keep it going.’

mrehalt@syr.edu

Published on December 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm