James Southerland leads as Syracuse Orange thump Eastern Michigan Eagles 84-48: NCAA Basketball
Syracuse Orange recorded their seventh consecutive victory with an 84-48 win over Eastern Michigan Eagles on November 29, 2011 at the Carrier Dome. It was Syracuse’s fourth consecutive victory since their assistant coach Bernie
Fine was accused two weeks ago of molesting two former ball boys.
Michigan, on the other hand, lost their second straight game and dropped to 4-3.
Forward James Southerland came off the bench to tie his career-high with 19 points. Syracuse used a 2-3 zone defence and the 6ft 8in junior automatically got more time, ending on 7 for 11 shooting from the field, including 3 for
6 from three-point range.
“I see a zone defence and his eyes get big,’’ Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “ He just has to get his eyes big when we see man-to-man.’’
Brandon Triche added 12 points on 4 for 7 shooting from downtown and handed out four assists for Orange, who beat Stanford in their closest game of this season, 69-63, on Friday night to win the NIT Season Tip-Off.
Kris Joseph chipped in 11 points, hitting 3 for 7 beyond the arc, and pulled down four rebounds in the victory.
Darrell Lampley was the only player for the Eagles who reached double figures with 19 points. He was 6 for 9 from the floor, including 3 for 5 from three-point range and 4 for 4 from charity stripe.
Syracuse shot 50.0 percent (32 for 64) from the floor and limited Michigan to just 34.7 percent (17 for 49). They also outrebounded the Eagles 36-26 and outscored the Michigan 17-6 off turnovers. They also had a big edge in assists
as they dished out 21 compared to 12 by Michigan.
Michigan started strongly to build a 21-18 advantage early in the first half. Syracuse Orange however pulled away after that and scored seven consecutive points for a 25-21 lead with five minutes to go on the opening half.
Matt Balkema hit a free throw to cut the deficit to three but James Southerland made a three-point jumper to push the lead to 28-22. Syracuse continued to dominate and capped the half with four unanswered points to carve out a
32-24 lead. The Oranges stretched their lead to 16-point, 42-26, early in the second half and maintained their double-digit hold until the final buzzer.
“In the second half, we got our energy up,’’ Boeheim said. “I thought we executed a little better on offense and got some shots.’’
They will now host Florida Gators on Friday. Michigan Eagles, meanwhile, will have home-court advantage against Colgate Raiders on Thursday at the Cotterell Court, Hamilton.
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