It seemed a harmless sequence halfway through the first half. Indiana (Pa.), a Division II opponent, battled for back-to-back offensive rebounds to cut Syracuse’s lead to eight during Sunday afternoon’s exhibition game.

Harmless or not, head coach Jim Boeheim wanted a timeout.

‘He basically told us if we want to be a great team, we have to start now and play these games like they are real games,’ Harris said.

The Orange returned to the court and pushed that eight-point lead to 25, helping propel SU to a 73-63 win in front of 8,655 at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse played erratic throughout the contest but relied on a few big runs out of timeouts to win its final tune-up. SU’s regular season kicks off Sunday, when it hosts Le Moyne at 6:30 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.

Immediately out of that first timeout, Syracuse extended its lead to 14 without IUP attempting a shot. Eric Devendorf hit a 3 from the corner. Harris followed it up with a layup ignited by a Kris Joseph steal. The next trip for the Crimson Hawks, Devendorf stole the ball and pushed ahead for the uncontested layup. Six minutes after the stoppage, SU led 42-17.

‘Every timeout coach is just regrouping us and letting us know what we have to do to correct ourselves when we go out there,’ Devendorf said. ‘So we definitely want to make sure we go out there and correct ourselves from what he told us.’

The run put the Orange up 21 going into halftime, its biggest lead of the contest. The Orange flipped the switch on and off throughout the second half, with most of Syracuse’s better stretches of play coming after timeouts.

Like when Syracuse’s lead was cut to 13 with 10:19 remaining. Just like in the first half, Boeheim called a timeout.

Sixty-four seconds later, the Orange had extended its lead to 19 the same way it did in the first half, with its defense leading to offense. After a Devendorf layup, Flynn stole the ball and converted another layup. Even Arinze Onuaku got in fast break mix off a steal. The center dribbled up court before bouncing a one-handed pass to Joseph in stride for an easy finish.

‘This team never really wants to be a half-court offensive team,’ sophomore point guard Jonny Flynn said. ‘We want to get out and get easy transition buckets as much as we can.’

Toward the end of the second half, even timeouts couldn’t help the lethargic SU effort. Syracuse went scoreless in the game’s final 4:29. Indiana constantly battled back in the half, shedding points off the lead throughout in the final 20 minutes but never seriously challenging the Orange.

‘I think in the second half we came out, we didn’t have the same defensive intensity,’ Boeheim said. ‘When you don’t, you’re going to pay a price. We just didn’t play the same way.’

In the first half, the Orange’s lead was built by creating steals. Of the 10 total SU had, seven came in the first half. Meanwhile, seven of IUP’s nine steals came in the second half, helping the Crimson Hawks outscore the Orange, 38-27, in the final 20 minutes.

‘It was definitely a 20-minute game today, and we had a lot of collapses the second half,’ Devendorf said. ‘But like I said, we are going to go into practice this week and work on what we have to do and be prepared for next Sunday.’

Sunday, the Orange’s first regular season game, will be against another Division II opponent: Le Moyne. Boeheim said the game won’t count against the Orange’s RPI, so it won’t smear SU’s NCAA Tournament resume with a win or a loss against a sub-.300 RPI team.

RPI team or not, forward Rick Jackson would like the opener to be against a bit stronger talent. More importantly, he’s just eager to begin the season.

‘It feels good to get the preseason over with,’ Jackson said. ‘We’re going to start playing good teams. I’m tired of playing the short little teams. I want to play some competition to try to get better, but I can’t wait until next week.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on November 9, 2008 at 12:00 pm