MIAMI – Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris learned a valuable NCAA Tournament lesson before they even played their first-round game against Stephen F. Austin

Both watched No. 3 seed Villanova take on No. 14 seed American Thursday night and fall down 10 points at halftime, before clawing back for a 13-point win win. The Syracuse players decided then they wouldn’t fall victim to the same fate.

‘You saw yesterday Villanova and American, it’s the same 3-14 game,’ Flynn said. ‘So we really wanted to get out there and jump on them quick and push the lead up.

Syracuse did just that, ending Stephen F. Austin’s first trip to the big dance in dominating fashion, 59-44, here at American Airlines Arena Friday afternoon. With the win, Syracuse is in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004 and will face No. 6 seed Arizona State Sunday.

The Orange opened the game on a 20-4 run through the first 10:33 of the first half. The lead seesawed after that, going as high as 20 but never lower than 11, and stood at 16 going into halftime.

The charge was a result of Syracuse demonstratively displaying the size advantage it had entering the game. In its first three possessions SU hammered the ball down low, resulting in a Arinze Onuaku layup and a Rick Jackson slam.

Defensively, Jackson swatted SFA’s first shot attempt and tied a career high with five blocked shots. In all, the Orange turned away a season-high 11 shots. The shots that weren’t getting blocked certainly weren’t falling. The Lumberjacks didn’t make a field goal the first seven minutes of the game.

‘It was very noticeable, and we tried to take advantage early,’ junior guard Andy Rautins said. ‘That’s got to take the confidence away a bit when you get two easy dunks in there. That was our goal to establish a post game and we did that.’

Eighteen of Syracuse’s first 24 points came in the paint, and the 24 of the 38 it scored in the first half came from in close. The mismatch was visible on the boards as well, as SU out rebounded the Lumberjacks, 55-34, with Paul Harris leading the way with 16.

Jackson and Onuaku combined to score 16 of SU’s 38 points in the first 20 minutes, but they weren’t the only players with a size advantage. The 6-foot Flynn had a nine-inch advantage at times over 5-foot-3 SFA guard Eric Bell. Flynn had 10 points in the first half and seemed to score at will. He finished with a game-high 16 points and left to a standing ovation from the crowd.

Coming out of the locker room Syracuse began the half with the same urgency it began the game. SU went on a 6-0 run on back-to-back-to-back Onuaku slam dunks. It then ballooned into a 12-2 run. That five-minute span to begin the second half was a microcosm of the game as a whole. Onuaku and Jackson combined for 10 of the 12 points, while Flynn dazzled the crowd with a crossover through the legs, forcing his defender to stumble, then hit the jumper from the left elbow over the undersized guard.

‘With a team like SFA, this is a scary team,’ Flynn said. ‘This is a team when they get confident they feel like they can go out there and beat you if you don’t take that confidence away from them. They can jump on you.’

The domination down low was accentuated by the Orange making just two 3-pointers the entire game, tied for the lowest output of the season. The difference was made up by Jackson, Flynn and Onuaku, who combined for 40 of SU’s 59 points.

‘When Andy and Eric shoot 3-for-17, we usually lose by about 15,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I think we were fortunate today to survive a bad shooting performance by those two guys, something that we normally can’t do.’

After padding the lead to 24 the Orange began to milk the clock much of the second half. SU put up only three points on the board the final eight minutes of the game, which cut the final margin to 15.

A margin that was constructed in the post.

‘(Onuaku and Jackson) really played well for us,’ Flynn said. ‘We went to them early coach Boeheim made some great calls and to get them touches early and get them going. A lot of people like to call me the motor for the team but if you look back on the season whenever our bigs play well we win every game.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on March 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm