Syracuse had capped its 93-74 win over Notre Dame 20 minutes earlier, but Arinze Onuaku hadn’t stopped moving.

The SU center, after scoring a team-leading 19 points, pedaled a stationary bike as he tried to keep his legs fresh while the locker room buzzed about one of the Orange’s biggest wins of the year.

Much of that buzz was about Onuaku, and the job he had done on Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody, the Big East’s leading scorer. Harangody shot a season-low 32 percent from the field in Saturday’s game, as he struggled for open looks against a suffocating defense by the SU center.

‘Guys that come here, they want to get the best of me and we want to get the best of them,’ Onuaku said, head bobbing up and down with the rhythm of his legs. ‘Games like this, we’re just battling from the tip, and we’re just playing hard.’

Onuaku set the tone from the start, scoring Syracuse’s first points 31 seconds into the game by working around Harangody for a layup. From there, he went on to make 6-of-7 first-half shots, helping Syracuse build a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

After one of his worst games of the year against Georgetown, when he totaled only six points in a blowout loss, Onuaku bounced back with a gem three days later.

‘That’s what he needs to do every night,’ SU forward Kris Joseph said. ‘You know, some games he’s going to be better than others. We need him to stay consistent, like this game.’

Part of what helped Onuaku was strong play from forward Rick Jackson, who totaled 14 points and 10 rebounds. Paired with another scoring threat down low, Onuaku was able to work one-on-one, instead of facing double-teams.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim started experimenting with the Onuaku-Jackson lineup a month ago, and the results have been fruitful on both ends of the court. Jackson notched three blocks in less than six minutes to start the game, and the duo combined for seven blocks. Notre Dame had two. Syracuse outscored the Irish 54-24 in the paint.

‘We just talked about it from the beginning of the game,’ Onuaku said, of playing well with Jackson. ‘We just wanted to stay balanced. They really couldn’t double one player down in the post. They had to play us honest, so we were both able to score down there.’

Harangody, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, still put up points – a game-high 25. But he had to take 28 shots to do that, and was a major contributor to Notre Dame shooting a season-low 35.5 percent from the field.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim attributed that to a defensive strategy of staying behind him and keeping the big man away from the basket.

‘I thought that Ricky and (Onuaku) did a tremendous job of making (Harangody) take tough shots, not letting him get in close where he had to take the hook shot over them,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s a tremendous offensive player, but if he has to take 28 shots to get his points, that’s a good stat for us.’

To keep Harangody out of foul trouble, Mike Brey sent in reserve Luke Zeller to start the second half against Onuaku. Zeller picked up three fouls and fouled out at the 7:23 mark, as Onuaku kept on rolling.

Meanwhile, Jackson recognized the intent of Brey’s move and adjusted his game plan accordingly, as he started taking the ball right at Harangody. The result: Jackson scored eight of his 14 points in the first 13 minutes of the second half.

‘I just really took that for granted and tried to just go right at him, cause I knew he wasn’t really going to try and play me that much, because he would get in foul trouble,’ Jackson said of Harangody. ‘And that worked.’

For Onuaku though, the movement barely stops. Come Monday, Onuaku will find himself matched up against DaJuan Blair, the conference’s leading rebounder, when Syracuse travels to take on No. 1 Pittsburgh.

But for Onuaku, who seemingly thrives against the toughest competition, that might not be such a bad thing.

‘We just gotta play like we did tonight, get a balanced scoring attack and play defense and we should be all right,’ Onuaku said.

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Published on January 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm