Princeton was still threatening, down by six to Syracuse with 13:35 remaining. Then SU head coach Jim Boeheim called a timeout.

From there, the Orange regrouped, forced Princeton into turnovers and vanquished its smaller and slower opponent.

“You force Princeton into 24 turnovers, that’s – they probably won’t have 24 turnovers in two games this year,” Boeheim said. “But we did a good job defensively. They were a very good team and it was just a good win.”

In a game in which Syracuse never trailed, the Orange hardly controlled the game’s tempo as Princeton largely restricted the game to a series of half-court sets. Ultimately, though, No. 6 SU (3-0) used its superior athleticism to punish the Tigers (1-3) on the break en route to a 73-53 victory before a crowd of 17,881 in the Carrier Dome Wednesday night.

The Tigers came out appearing to almost know they would have no luck in the paint. Passes inside to Princeton center Ian Hummer were fruitless due to SU’s superior size. Hummer, 6 feet, 7 inches, stood close to the 6-foot-9 DaJuan Coleman in height, but he weighed 63 fewer pounds than SU’s freshman center.

Unable to match Syracuse in the paint, the Tigers relied on their perimeter shooting to stay in the game.

In the first half Princeton shot 10-of-20 from the field, with all 10 field goals coming off assists. The Orange’s pressure stifled the PU guards, but quick reverses yielded run-stopping 3s.

“They have great shooters and they did a good job of controlling the tempo,” SU forward James Southerland said. “Every time we tried to make a spurt they came back and hit a couple 3s and stayed in the game until we finally broke loose.”

SU went into halftime up 36-25, but Brandon Triche left the court with an earful from Boeheim after T.J. Bray hit a 3 with six seconds remaining, exemplifying the Orange’s struggles defensively.

Princeton came out of the locker room playing an even calmer game. The scoreboard belonged to SU, but the Tigers dictated the pace once again.

But tempo only took Princeton so far. The Tigers’ offense too often grinded to two or three static dribbles on the perimeter from Bray or Denton Koon along with a harmless swing pass to Chris Clement.

When the Tigers stopped hitting 3s, they lost any grip on the game.

Yet when Wilson Clay hit a trey with 13:43 remaining to cut the SU lead to six, there was legitimate cause for concern on the Orange bench.

“They started just to make a run and we had to – we called timeout and we got the guys together and said ‘Hey let’s go back to playing our style of game and get out and run,’” Carter-Williams said. “That’s exactly what we did and we just got some easy buckets and we opened the game.”

On the first possession after the timeout, Princeton tried to trap Carter-Williams on the left wing. He dumped the ball down to Southerland who the Tigers also failed to trap, freeing up Triche. The senior guard then chucked the ball down to Rakeem Christmas.

Christmas hammered home a two-handed dunk from the left block. Syracuse was back in control. Carter-Williams and Triche cut into Princeton’s zone, opening up the perimeter and the key.

On defense, SU forced three turnovers in less than three minutes and the Tigers couldn’t keep up.

“We definitely try to keep it active and take away angles and that leads to steals,” Carter-Williams said.

With less than five-and-a-half minutes remaining, Carter-Williams tore away a pass from Bray at the top of the key. He raced downcourt with Bray in pursuit, shifted to right of the hoop, flashed a smile and unleashed a two-handed dunk that sent the Carrier Dome crowd into frenzy.

Bray let out a sigh of frustration and impatiently called for the ball from the baseline referee. Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson called a timeout. SU led 65-50.

Princeton’s static offense wasn’t enough to make the Orange pay, but it also played a role in SU’s inability to turn a comfortable win into a blowout.

Said Boeheim: “We did turn (the ball) over, we made a few mistakes, but that’s a part of early-season basketball.”

Published on November 21, 2012 at 9:16 pm

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