This was not a first-time encounter. Hardly. Kris Joseph has clashed with Memphis’ Wesley Witherspoon before. The summer before his senior year of high school, the two first butted heads at Vince Carter’s basketball camp.

A mini rivalry was born. They’ve met in college twice, the latest being Wednesday night. Witherspoon jawed. Joseph was quiet. And on a fastbreak, Joseph posterized Witherspoon with a one-handed tomahawk slam to balloon SU’s lead to 12.

A few feet away, Joseph screamed at Witherspoon. You could say Joseph has the edge in this rivalry.

‘Yes, definitely,’ Joseph smiled afterward.

And in the process, Syracuse gets a little bit tougher. The No. 7 Orange (14-1, 1-1) was hardly perfect in front of 17,805 at the Carrier Dome Wednesday night. A disgusted Jim Boeheim struggled to uncover any positives afterward. But in Syracuse’s 74-57 win over Memphis (10-4), SU recaptured its aggression.

Instead of being bullied as it was last weekend against Pittsburgh, SU set the tempo. It took a while. Sloppy play – see: 17 turnovers and several missed layups – made this a game. Memphis led SU throughout the first half. But underneath, the Orange bigs slowly chipped away. The frontcourt rotation of Wes Johnson, Arinze Onuaku, Rick Jackson and Kris Joseph nearly outscored Memphis itself with 54 points.

One dunk at a time, Syracuse rebounded from its first loss of the season.

‘We just had to finish,’ Joseph said. ‘We knew we had to finish around the basket because they’re a scrappy team. They’re going to hack and foul. We just wanted to go in there and play strong for all 40 minutes.’

Boeheim didn’t mince words after Syracuse’s first loss of the season. His big men needed to toughen up. Two minutes into the game, the prodding began. Like so many times against Pitt, Boeheim screeched ‘A.O.!’ after a mental lapse, his arms spread and mouth agape.

After a rough start, SU got rolling. Onuaku and Jackson were stronger with the ball. The ball wasn’t swiped from their grasp. Dunks replaced layups. They rarely shared the court together, creating more space. And, maybe most importantly, the Orange controlled the boards, as Syracuse outrebounded Memphis, 36-24.

With a pair of thunderous two-handed jams in the second half, Onuaku answered Boeheim’s plea. The twin towers combined for 20 points and 15 rebounds.

‘We’re battling,’ Onuaku said. ‘Every game, we’re battling. That’s what we do-me and Ricky. We’re trying to dominate the paint every game.’

But to Boeheim, this win was not a step forward.

After one SU turnover in the second half led to a Memphis fastbreak, Boeheim hastily ripped off his jacket. He threw it on the floor and an assistant coach quickly tucked it behind the bench. Boeheim turned his back to the game, heard the crowd scream and realized that Memphis’ Elliot Williams had missed the breakaway dunk.

It was the game in a nutshell. Instead of the Tigers slicing Syracuse’s deficit to 42-41, the Orange came back down and made a pair of free throws. Memphis never got closer again. Syracuse was sloppy, but it didn’t matter.

Just don’t expect Boeheim to shower his team with confetti any time soon.

‘Right now, we’re not a good basketball team,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’re not playing like a good basketball team and I don’t think we have been the last three or four games.’

He has a point. Memphis is not a Big East-branded team. They rarley embrace contact the way Pitt did. One week ago, the Tigers were outrebounded by guard-oriented Tennessee, 42-26. Still, the Orange took care of business. In the second half, Johnson went to the rim with a purpose. Onuaku and Jackson were not pushed around. And Andy Rautins rediscovered his shooting touch. After a three-game, 3-of-14 shooting funk from deep, Rautins (11 points) got hot against Memphis’ zone.

His dagger at the end of the first half to tie the game shifted all momentum in SU’s favor.

But even with the hot hand, Rautins made a conscience effort to look inside. Multiple times, he dumped the ball down rather than hoist another 3. He knows the value of this. He’s been around long enough to realize Syracuse must develop a post presence to make noise in the Big East.

More specifically, Onuaku and Jackson needed to bounce back fast. Needed to take charge.

To Rautins – if not Boeheim – they did.

‘Those guys are big for us,’ Rautins said. ‘They’re our rocks down there. We need to give them consistent looks. We need to keep them involved in the offense and they cleaned up the glass for us.’

So onto the Big East.

It wasn’t pretty Wednesday night. Memphis led most of the first half. But when Memphis pushed, Syracuse pushed back — unlike against Pitt. With a rugged Big East schedule on tap, such an attitude is a prerequisite.

Joseph, thunderous dunk ‘n all, says his team is ready.

‘This says a lot about our team,’ Joseph said. ‘We have a lot of heart. We never give up. Against Pittsburgh, we lost the game. But tonight we didn’t give up even when the game wasn’t going our way.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on January 9, 2010 at 12:00 pm