Trevor Cooney turned left and threw a pass to the middle to Rakeem Christmas, who towered over the rotating defender, Colgate guard Luke Roh.

Despite the 6-foot-4 Roh tugging on the 6-foot-9 Christmas’ left arm in an attempt to foul him, the Syracuse forward muscled up a layup and got it to fall off the glass as the whistle blew.

Syracuse dominated Colgate all night. By halftime, SU was up 30, and Cooney had 14 points to Colgate’s 13 as the Orange (7-4) was its way to a 78-43 victory over the mismatched Raiders (3-9) on Monday night before a crowd of 18,905 in the Carrier Dome. An aggressive Cooney finished with 20 points to pace the Orange, which took advantage of its size discrepancy to roll through Colgate — which started one player taller than 6 feet, 6 inches — albeit not in the prettiest fashion.

“I think we are getting better,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said after the game. “I think we had a long way to get to this point, and I think we’ve still got a long way to go to get better.”

To move on from the agony of its near-upset of No. 7 Villanova on Saturday, though, Syracuse did what it had to and more.

Although SU’s lead was just 6-5 nearly four minutes into the contest, the Orange took off on a 16-0 run capitalized by a Cooney 3 to put the Raiders in a sizable hole. Guard Ron Patterson came in and provided a spark, logging two points, two steals and two rebounds during the stretch.

The Orange’s length gave Colgate’s offense fits on the inside and on the boards. The Raiders shot just 3-of-23 from deep, when they moved the zone enough to get off an attempt from beyond the arc.

After Colgate’s Damon Sherman-Newsome snapped the 16-point run with two free throws and a layup, SU forward Michael Gbinije and Cooney connected on back-to-back 3s to fire up a 12-0 stretch that put the Orange in position to take a 43-13 halftime lead.

The second half featured more of the same, as Christmas bullied the Raiders’ bigs for 10 second-half points and Cooney hit a pair of 3s.

“I know that we’re a better team when I come out here and I play like I just did,” said Cooney, who shot 8-for-15 on the night, including 4-of-9 from 3-point range. “And I know when I’m aggressive, good things are going to happen.”

If it was any consolation, Roh received a sarcastic hand from the crowd as he softly dunked a two-hander in transition.

But Boeheim’s emotions didn’t always mirror the light-heartedness of the Dome crowd. Mixed in with Syracuse’s abuse of a smaller Colgate team were sequences that made Boeheim look like anything but a coach who was comfortably ahead by 30 points.

He shouted at Gbinije after a missed jumper, scolded Kaleb Joseph for taking a 3 too early in the shot clock, and immediately motioned for Chinonso Obokoh to check in after McCullough bricked a midrange jumper.

Cynical mutters came from the crowd after Christmas tried a midrange jumper and Obokoh’s maneuvering in the post didn’t yield any opportunity to score.

But when it was all said and done, Syracuse walked away with a 35-point victory and the loss to the Wildcats further in SU’s rear-view mirror.

Said Gbinije, with a smile: “I don’t know how I feel about you reminding me about the Villanova game, but it’s definitely good to go into a break with a win behind us.”

Published on December 22, 2014 at 8:58 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb