Gerry McNamara could only offer one word from the Syracuse bench: ‘Wow.’

McNamara, an SU graduate assistant and Syracuse’s all-time leader in made 3-pointers, watched as Cincinnati’s Dion Dixon nailed 3-pointer after 3-pointer in the first half. Stunned, McNamara could only look on in disbelief at a Carrier Dome shooting clinic reminiscent of one of his own.

After four 3s in four minutes from Dixon, an eight-point lead had dwindled to just two near the end of the first half. Dixon couldn’t miss, and SU wasn’t getting out on defense to stop him.

‘We gave them open looks,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘And teams can make those. It was hopefully a good lesson for us.’

No. 4 SU took that lesson and turned it on its head immediately in the second half, using a dominant defensive performance inside and out to pull away for a 67-52 victory over No. 25 Cincinnati Saturday.

For Boeheim, the change in the SU defense ultimately led the team to victory.

‘In the second half,’ Boeheim said, ‘we got out better on their shooters.’

That’s where the game turned. Right off the bat, Dixon was blocked by James Southerland. He cooled off after a 4-of-6 performance from beyond the arc in the first, going 2-of-5 in the second half. Cincinnati missed its first 10 shots of the half, and 19 of its first 21 overall.

All the while SU was hitting its shots and building a 20-point lead six minutes into the half. Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine echoed the sentiments of his coach, saying the momentum shift started with the Orange getting out on the Cincinnati shooters — especially Dixon.

‘Defend Dixon,’ Jardine said of the key difference in the Syracuse defense from one half to the next. ‘Whew. He made some (Brigham Young guard) Jimmer Fredette 3s today. He was just knocking them down.

‘We had to defend him. Once we did a great job of defending him and running him off his spot, we opened the game up.’

In the second half, SU’s defense forced Dixon to reconsider many of the same 3s he took in the first half. He suddenly found a hand in his face, and SU forced Dixon to take longer shots. He ventured further and further beyond the 3-point line on multiple second-half attempts as the Syracuse defense extended.

It was Dixon who ultimately contributed the Bearcats’ first 3 of the second half, but it was too little, too late. That came with 7:37 left in the half, but Syracuse still found itself with a comfortable 55-41 lead. Cincinnati had 10 points through the half’s first 12-plus minutes.

‘They weren’t able to score in the second half without those 3-point shots,’ SU guard Brandon Triche said. ‘That’s what we figured out coming in at halftime. We figured, if we took away their 3-point shots, they wouldn’t be able to score.’

And the Bearcats had a tough time trying to go away from the 3-point shot and taking their offense inside. Mostly because of freshman center Fab Melo’s 11 energized minutes to start the half, during which he contributed four blocks.

The scene of Melo blocking UC’s Ibrahima Thomas with 17:47 to play symbolized the shift in dominance for the SU defense. Because near the same point in the first half, he was getting reamed out by Boeheim after picking up his third foul at the 16:16 mark.

‘I got the (third) foul because I was trying to get in front,’ Melo said. ‘I told myself, I’ll let him get the ball and change the shots or try to block the shots. That’s what I did in the second half.’

The collective effort meant the Orange had executed Rick Jackson’s halftime adjustments to near perfection. Triche said Jackson told his teammates to key on the 3-point shot, even overplay it. Jackson and Melo would take care of anyone coming into the lane.

Syracuse did just that. And for Cincinnati, it led to 25 percent shooting in the half — 22.2 percent from beyond the arc — and just 21 points.

‘I didn’t try to let anybody shoot,’ Triche said. ‘And if they got by me, I trusted that Fab and Rick were going to contest the shot and rebound. And that’s what they did.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on January 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm