It may as well have been an 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 can be described with any word in the dictionary besides competitive.

‘It was so much fun,’ shooting guard Andy Rautins said. ‘I was talking to Wes (Johnson) on the bench and said, ‘Man, this is so much fun playing with this team because 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.’

Syracuse destroyed – one of many applicable verbs – Maine by 46 points to improve to 8-0. The Orange took a 60-12 lead into halftime and used a 34-2 run to end the first half, including a 32-0 run that at one point that spanned 10:44.

‘It was really fun, especially going into the Florida game,’ said Johnson, referring to SU’s matchup with the No. 13 Gators Thursday night. ‘It was fun to go out there and play, and compete and everybody seemed like they were clicking tonight.’

This glorified practice for the game against 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. Johnson and Rautins connected for another monstrous alley-oop, ignited by a behind-the-back pass from Triche to Rautins. Syracuse had a 29-10 lead 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.’

Syracuse went on a 34-2 run to end the half, leading a 48-point edge. 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 scored more first-half points (17) against the Orange when the teams met in October than the Maine basketball team (12).

The Black Bears couldn’t buy a bucket until late in the game. Syracuse’s stingy 2-3 zone defense kept Maine shooting 3-pointers and mid-range jumpers, and Maine put up more than its fair share of air balls. At one point, a jumper careened off the neck of the hoop that connects the support to the back of the glass.

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 connecting on 4-of-31 shots.

‘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.’

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 Southerland scoring 10 points in 20 minutes off the bench. Only one starter, Jackson, played more than 20 minutes.

The players were loose after the game, sitting down in the 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 has 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.

That worked out pretty 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 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm