NEW YORK — Syracuse entered Madison Square Garden Tuesday as perhaps the most unproven team in the national rankings. Near upsets against the likes of Detroit and William & Mary inside the Carrier Dome didn’t help prove SU’s legitimacy.

But Tuesday, with a matchup against a Top 10 team on a national stage, Syracuse was determined to put together its most complete performance of the season. The Orange did just that, stepping its game up on national television to defeat an opponent one year removed from a Final Four appearance.

‘We really grew up tonight,’ SU point guard Scoop Jardine said.

Syracuse picked up a marquee win to validate its unblemished record, taking down No. 7 Michigan State 72-58 Tuesday night. In front of a sellout crowd of 19,391, No. 8 Syracuse (9-0) used a stout defensive effort to hold off the Spartans (6-3) in the second game of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.

It’s a vindicating win for a team that struggled throughout its first eight games this season.

‘We’ve flat-out struggled,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘This team has struggled probably more than any team I can remember. Through the first eight games, I don’t think I can remember a team that has struggled as much as this team has struggled.’

But as the Orange took the floor of MSG, those struggles evaporated. Syracuse trailed for just 2:55 and never in the second half against a Spartans team that took No. 1 Duke to the wire last week. Rick Jackson scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and Jardine and Kris Joseph combined for 33 points as SU pulled away late in the second half.

Syracuse’s veterans were supported by the solid performances of freshmen C.J. Fair and Dion Waiters — both of whom seemed to thrive off a pro-Orange crowd. Early on, Fair had a pair of momentum-building dunks, and Waiters dropped a 3-pointer with 11:40 left to play that started a 22-11 SU run.

‘Especially our young guys,’ Jardine said. ‘They got to see what college basketball is all about. This is a great atmosphere.’

Offensively, the Orange thrived when Michigan State played its trademark man-to-man defense. SU shot just 2-for-11 (18.2 percent) from beyond the arc, but it didn’t matter. Syracuse didn’t need to rely on outside jumpers.

The Orange guards found teammates cutting to the lane for easy buckets. Jackson had four dunks alone, all coming off cuts to the basket.

‘I think this win shows how good we can be,’ Jackson said. ‘We’re a young team, but we’ve got a lot of potential.’

And it ultimately came back to the stellar Orange defense that has guided SU to victories through its early-season struggles. For the second consecutive game, Syracuse created more than 15 turnovers. The Spartans shot just 39 percent from the field.

That defense proved to be the biggest difference maker. Michigan State was held to 20 points below its per-game average coming in.

‘In the first half, especially, we played as well defensively as we can play,’ Boeheim said. ‘Our offense struggled a little bit in the second half, but our defense stayed with them.’

When the Spartans did bring the score close, SU created turnovers that led to easy baskets. The Orange outscored MSU 20-7 on points off turnovers. Those baskets helped offset the poor outside shooting, a problem for SU all season.

‘With that defense that we showed today, it was a great thing for us,’ Joseph said. ‘Our defense really generated our offense, and that was big.’

Despite calling the win ‘really good,’ Boeheim emphasized after the game that this Syracuse team still has room to grow. Outside of four guys, there’s nothing but youth, and it is games like these that mature the group.

So even if some of those players viewed this as a statement game, Boeheim stood at the podium echoing many of the same things he has said up to this point.

‘I don’t think we’re playing as well as we can play,’ Boeheim said. ‘I don’t think we’ve played really well offensively yet. I think we can get there. I think we can be good. But we’re not there yet.

‘We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a long ways to go.’

aljohn@syr.edu

 

Published on December 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm