With the shot clock winding down, Cornell’s Robert Hatter spun and rose to try and force up a shot. But he couldn’t even get the ball on the rim, as SU guard John Gillon smacked the ball away. Gillon dribbled three times forward and threw an outlet to Tyler Roberson. Roberson took one hard dribble and found a cutting Tyus Battle who soared in for a reverse layup. It took four dribbles to score two easy points.

Recently, SU could not collect fast-break points. In its blowout loss to St. John’s, the Red Storm had 18 fast-break points to SU’s five. In the seven-point loss to Georgetown, Syracuse scored only three times on its fast break. Against Boston University and in losses to Connecticut, South Carolina and Wisconsin, the Orange scored a grand total of eight transition points in 160 minutes of basketball. SU won only one of the four games.

But when Syracuse (8-5) gets out in transition like it did in its 80-56 win over against Cornell (3-9), it flourishes. It’s 6-1 when it scores more points via the fast break than its opponent. (Its only loss when it outscored an opponent in transition was a 52-50 defeat to Connecticut, a game SU won the fast-break battle a mere 2-0.) SU outscored the Big Red 16-0 on the break. Eight of those points, including the Battle reverse layup, came in the last 10 minutes of the first half when the Orange turned a slight 17-16 edge into a 42-25 halftime advantage.

If Tuesday’s showing provided any indication as to what Syracuse can do in transition, the Orange could give better teams fits come conference play.

“It’s on our guards to get rebounds and just push the ball,” Battle said. “That’s a key thing because when we’re pushing the ball, we have shooters that run the court, for 3s. Our bigs post up. We’re a really big threat in transition.”

A more active 2-3 zone got stops on the defensive end, leading to easy layups at the other side of the floor. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said a better defensive effort led to points in transition and rekindled a stalling SU offense. In contesting 3-pointers, namely those from the Big Red’s lead threat Matt Morgan, the Orange sparked easy buckets.

“We were more active tonight on defense,” Boeheim said. “If you’re not active in the zone, you’re going to get picked apart. And that’s what’s happened to us in the last couple of games.”

Syracuse blocked seven Cornell shots and won the rebounding battle, both of which contributed to quick outlet passes and 4-on-3, 3-on-2 and 2-on-1 combinations.

Several times on Tuesday, a big defensive play led to an easy basket. After Tyler Lydon blocked Cornell forward Josh Warren, he skidded a pass to Gillon, who drove and finished. Roberson followed it up with a block that set up a Taurean Thompson layup on the other end.

“We just kept pushing it,” said Thompson, who scored 18 points.

Cornell is not Louisville. It’s certainly not Duke or North Carolina, either. At 3-9, it’s far from even Boston College and Georgia Tech, teams projected to finish near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference. But no matter the opponent, SU’s offense indicated on Tuesday night that it can thrive when it pushes the tempo.

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MORE COVERAGE

• Syracuse men’s basketball uses its size advantage to dominate Cornell, 80-56, in final nonconference game
• What we learned from Syracuse’s 80-56 victory over Cornell
• Graphical breakdown of Syracuse men’s basketball’s 80-56 victory over Cornell
• Syracuse fans react to SU’s 24 point victory over Cornell
• Gallery: Syracuse beats Cornell, 80-56, to wrap up nonconference play

Published on December 28, 2016 at 12:00 pm

Contact Matthew: [email protected] | @MatthewGut21