Jonny Flynn walked into the locker room and wanted to let everyone know who the star of the game was. As he walked over to the locker next where Andy Rautins was standing, looked at the mass of media surrounding his fellow guard, Flynn screamed out, ‘Andy Rautins!’

But the shooting guard needed no introduction. Rautins and Flynn tied for team-high 15 points. More importantly, Rautins had all four of the Orange’s 3-pointers – two of which came in a 48 second window midway through the second half, that propelled SU (6-0) to a 73-70 win over Virginia (3-2) Friday night at the Carrier Dome.

The consecutive 3-pointers forced Virginia to call a timeout, prompting Paul Harris to raise both hands over his head, as if signaling a touchdown. It left Flynn with an ear-to-ear smile while he skipped back to the huddle. And left the 22,096 fans in attendance on their feet all with the same thought.

‘That it was pretty much over,’ junior guard Eric Devendorf said of Rautins’ back-to-back 3’s that put SU on top. ‘Because once we get that lead we’re going to dig out and play some hard nose defense and that’s what we did and it got us the victory.’

SU had trailed for all but 62 seconds of the first half, and all of the second half until Rautins’ deep range jumpers. After the shots, the Orange never looked back, extending the lead to six, although three missed free throws down the stretch to make it close.

‘We just got out played more aggressive in the second half,’ Rautins said. ‘We went to what was working for us and we went on a little run. This game is a game of runs.’Rautins sparked the runs with his ability to pass the ball as well. The junior finished with three assists, two of which came in the final ten minutes of the game. But all three came via the same play – luring the defense in on a threat of a 3-point basket.

Rautins up faked, then drove three times resulting in a layup and two dunks for the Orange by Flynn and Rick Jackson respectively.

‘We were running the three play for Andy and they were spreading out,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Andy said the next time after he caught it he was going to the lane. And he went in the lane and Ricky got a dunk, I think he got two dunks off the same thing.’

The effort displayed after the lead change was in stark contrast to the Orange’s energy in the first half and much of the second. The Cavaliers enjoyed a 13 point lead in the first half and a 12 point with just less than 17 minutes remaining in the second.

The Orange finished with 15 turnovers. Fourteen came before the Orange took the lead for good in the second half. In all, Virginia padded its lead with 21 points off Syracuse turnovers.

The easy buckets allowed the Cavaliers to shoot nearly 46 percent from the field and at a 37 percent clip from beyond the arc. A 7-2 run to end the first half, that saw Virginia grasp its largest lead of the half before Eric Devendorf hit a circus shot layup at the buzzer. It was the first field goal since an Andy Rautins 3-pointer with 6:12 remaining until half time.

At the break the Orange’s eventual two leading scorers, Rautins and Flynn only had six and three points respectively.

‘Jonny was terrific again in the second half,’ Boeheim said. ‘He struggled in the first half the last three games. You know second half he’s all world. We just have to get him going a little earlier.’

The second half came much easier for the Orange. SU shot 12-20 from the field and decreased Virginia’s fast break points to just four. In the second half SU held Virginia to 37.9 percent from the field and 16.7 from beyond the arc.

Friday the Jekyll and Hyde halves didn’t hurt the Orange thanks in part to a standout second half by Rautins. But even as SU prevailed with a sloppy half, it’s not something the team wants to get used to.

‘We’ve got to get out of that,’ Flynn said. ‘If we could just play like that for two halves the Kansas game would have been a lot easier and this game would have been a lot easier.

‘But tonight we got a great game from Andy Rautins there were about four possessions in the second half where we just called his number every time.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on November 28, 2008 at 12:00 pm