NEWARK, N.J. – With every shot Brandon Triche made Saturday, with every 3-pointer he drained, with every audible groan the Seton Hall fans voiced, a frustratingly cold performance from three days ago seemed increasingly distant.

He nailed mid-range jumpers. He converted layups. He made the 3-point line – an area that was practically his personal hell on Wednesday – his personal stage on Saturday.

Triche scored a career-high 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting in Syracuse’s 76-65 win over Seton Hall at the Prudential Center, erasing any lingering bad memories from his off night at Connecticut. Triche knocked down four of his seven 3-point attempts. Triche was so dominant that the question wasn’t whether or not he could make a shot, but whether or not he could get to 30 points.

“I had 29 tonight, so it seemed like it didn’t bother me too well. I don’t worry about bad games,” Triche said. “I figure I’m going to do well the next game. I have faith. I pray before every game. I have faith that I am going to do well the next game.”

Against the Huskies on Wednesday, Triche was 3-of-15 from the field and 0-of-7 from the arc.

Saturday was the complete opposite.

It took 18 seconds for Triche to start his recovery. He stole the ball away from Seton Hall guard Haralds Karlis, raced up the court and sank a mid-range jumper from the left block that gave Syracuse an early 2-0 lead.

For the next eight-plus minutes, the Orange struggled to adjust to Seton Hall’s matchup zone defense. The Pirates held a head-scratching nine-point lead.

Then Triche hit a floater in the lane and nailed a shot from the right elbow. He grabbed a rebound off a Southerland miss and drew a foul, hit a free throw, and almost single-handedly led Syracuse back into the game. He buoyed a 12-0 run that turned Seton Hall’s chance for an upset into a mirage.

“Brandon got going. I think Brandon was aggressive tonight, the way we need him to be,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “I just thought he really, offensively kept us in there early, and then he made plays at the end. I thought he had just an unbelievable game.”

So by the time Triche hit a 3 from the left corner at the end of the first half to make it 32-28 Syracuse, he had officially bounced back.

Michael Carter-Williams said for the last two days, almost every play Syracuse ran in practice ended with Triche taking a shot. It was by design. If Triche was going to rebound from an off night, he had to take more shots to do so.

“I think that helped him out a lot,” Carter-Williams said. “He came out and he was knocking down shots. He was great.”

Triche continuously wrecked the Pirates’ attempts at closing the deficit. Seton Hall center Eugene Teague converted a three-point play at the 15:51 mark of the second half that made it 43-39 Syracuse.

A little over a minute later, Triche nailed a 3 from the left corner that pushed the Orange’s lead back to seven.

Then with just over three minutes left, Triche hit a long 3 from up top that made it a 13-point game. The shot gave him 26 points on the night. As soon as he hit it, the arena momentarily fell silent. Wherever Triche was on the floor, he was drilling shots.

“He made some tough shots. For him to knock down them, you could tell he had confidence shooting them,” forward C.J. Fair said. “Because some players wouldn’t take the shots he took. But he knocked them down.”

Triche said he didn’t know how many points he had until he looked up in the final minute and saw he had 26. He wanted 30.

Carter-Williams said he didn’t know how many Triche had either, but he was shooting so well he had to get the ball.

With nine seconds left, Triche nailed one final 3-pointer. It gave him a new career high of 29 points.

After the game, he stood in front of his locker and looked up at the big screen TV hanging on the wall watching James White attempt a dunk in the NBA’s Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. He could finally relax and breathe easy.

The frustration and angst from three days ago never seemed so distant.

“When it came down to the end of it,” Triche said, “I wanted the ball in my hands and I was able to convert.”

Published on February 17, 2013 at 12:42 am

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