Jim Boeheim’s arms replicated his players’.

Straight up.

With halftime nearing, Syracuse extended its pressure outside, forced a turnover in front of its head coach and team bench, and got a stop, hinting at what was to come in the second half.

It was less of Hampton’s zone-shredding ball movement and more of the Orange’s athleticism on the defensive end. The Pirates scrapped and stayed within an arm’s length for much of Sunday afternoon’s game. But the Syracuse (2-0) defense clamped down in the second half, allowing its offense to pull away for a 65-47 victory in the 2K Classic over the Pirates (0-2) before a Carrier Dome audience of 22,848.

“We made some little mistakes that you’re going to make sometimes and allow the game to stay in touch,” Boeheim said. “… We struggled to score for a long time in the second half, but our defense kept us in position to win the game.”

Through the opening five minutes, Hampton connected on four of its first seven shots, the last of which was an and-one, fast-break layup by guard Deron Powers. The Orange’s first-half lead didn’t stretch wider than six points until forward Tyler Roberson banked in a last-second shot before halftime.

Syracuse’s major source of production through the half was senior Rakeem Christmas. He was 10 points and nine rebounds into his 15-point, 16-rebound performance but was held back slightly by foul trouble due to physicality around the rim.

Hampton’s quick ball movement shifted the 2-3 zone and HU’s guards often found enough space for pull-ups or backdoor cutters along the baseline.

“They were able to get inside,” SU guard Trevor Cooney said. “We’ve got to move a little bit better and be a little more active and at times, we were able to get some deflections and rotate and get some blocked shots.”

Fifteen is a small amount of turnovers, Boeheim said, but Syracuse forced them in the right situations. After HU committed a turnover in its half-court set, SU point guard Kaleb Joseph took a pass from Cooney for a transition layup and pushed the Orange’s lead to 11 with 14:07 left.

After shooting 12-of-29 in the first half, identical to SU, the Pirates made just three out of their first 12 attempts through the opening nine minutes of the second half.

“We knew we had to play defense, especially when they started to make it a closer game, and we did that,” Cooney said.

When Hampton drew within five points amid a string of three consecutive makes, Cooney responded with a 3 from the top of the key. It further sparked a Carrier Dome crowd that perked up when its team’s lead had suddenly been cut to five.

HU’s Dwight Meikle answered by hitting a floater with 8:20 remaining, but the Pirates wouldn’t score again until the 2:22 mark.

Syracuse followed up Meikle’s bucket by trapping Hampton into a timeout, then getting a turnover after that timeout. On the following possession, Powers had to toss up a wild 3 as the shot clock neared expiration. On the next time down the court, Cooney jumped on a long defensive rebound and pushed it ahead for a transition opportunity.

By the time the Pirates finally found the basket again, six of their shots and a free throw had gone awry, the Orange had piled on 10 points and Syracuse was well on its way to a 2-0 start to the season.

Said Joseph: “As long as we stay aggressive, stay confident and do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be able to stay in any game just because our defense, it’s hard to play against.”

Published on November 16, 2014 at 6:22 pm

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