PHILADELPHIA — Scoop Jardine’s grin flashed on the Wells Fargo Center’s video screen. As he backpedaled after drilling a 23-foot pull-up jumper, he couldn’t help it. Not back home in front of his friends and family. Not in a game in which he had hoped for a little revenge.

Clinging to a narrow four-point lead when he re-entered the game with 7:35 remaining, Jardine’s 3-pointer was the dagger Syracuse needed to dispatch Big East rival Villanova on Monday. It capped six consecutive points from the junior point guard, who sat for a stretch of nearly five minutes with four fouls.

‘I just took what they gave me,’ Jardine said. ‘I was in transition a few times, and I was stopping and popping and came off some curls and got in the lane and made some shots.’

When he returned to the game, the Philadelphia native picked up where he left off, leading No. 17 Syracuse (23-6, 10-6 Big East) to a 69-64 win over No. 15 Villanova (21-7, 9-6) in front of a crowd of 18,899. Jardine scored a team-high 20 points, and he and two other Philadelphia natives — senior forward Rick Jackson and freshman guard Dion Waiters — combined for 45 points in a homecoming of sorts.

Waiters sank two clutch free throws with 14.1 seconds remaining. Jackson added two more to seal the deal with 4.6 seconds left.

With the win, SU takes a huge step in front of a giant log-jam in the Big East standings.

‘The difference was obviously the Philly guys,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

Jardine and Jackson hadn’t played for SU in Philadelphia in nearly two years, since Syracuse lost by double digits to the Wildcats on Feb. 7, 2009. Earlier this year, Villanova came into the Carrier Dome and upset the then-No. 3 Orange.

Jardine, Jackson and Waiters had this game on their minds after that. And Jardine went out and had one of his best performances of the season — adding six assists and four rebounds to his point total.

‘It was a big win,’ Jardine said. ‘It’s always great just to win. Villanova is, of course, our rival now because people know me from Philly. … We knew what they took from us up at our home, and we wanted to get back at them.’

All three got started early. With SU down 6-0 to start the game, Jardine guided the Orange back, scoring seven points on a 13-1 run. He was noticeably aggressive, taking the ball to the rack and pulling up for jumpers without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Jackson dominated inside. Coming off another stellar effort Saturday against Rutgers, Jackson converted on 8-of-9 shots and controlled the paint defensively. Waiters got his shot going early, too, scoring for the first time in four games.

‘When we come home, we just want to beat Nova,’ Jackson said. ‘Just to come home to Philly and play Nova, all your family is here. Your friends that you went to high school with and people you used to know just want to support you. That’s a lot of love, and I think it helps you to play harder.’

Jardine and Jackson played a two-man game the entire night. When Jackson wasn’t open inside, Jardine created for himself. Starters Kris Joseph and Brandon Triche contributed as well.

Jardine didn’t mind playing the role of the villain in his hometown, crashing Senior Night and silencing the once-deafening crowd.

He showed that when, coming back into the game with the four fouls, he immediately took his man off the dribble and sank a 14-foot floater. Minutes later, with Nova’s momentum at its highest, Jardine pulled up from the top of the key and drilled a 3. It was his way of displaying the player he has become since he left Philadelphia.

‘My high school coach right there,’ Jardine said of Neumann-Goretti’s Carl Arrigale. ‘(He) put up with me for four years, when I was crazy.’

And with the shot that led to the giant grin, Jardine helped SU avenge an earlier-season defeat and surpass its rival in the conference standings.

‘When it got down to one, they ran the screen, and they went behind him on that screen,’ Boeheim said. ‘That was the ballgame.’

aljohn@syr.edu

Published on February 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm