Orange Onto Sweet Sixteen

The Orange offense was clicking on all cylinders Sunday. Third-seeded Syracuse (28-9) shot 55 percent from the floor and had five players score in double figures in a 78-67 win against No. 6 seed Arizona State (25-10) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Regional at American Airlines Arena. Syracuse advances to the Sweet 16 where it will face second-seeded Oklahoma on Friday, March 27 in Memphis. It’s the 14th time in 26 trips to the NCAA Tournament under head coach Jim Boeheim that the Orange has advanced to the regional semifinals. Four of the Orange’s five starters reached double digits Sunday against the Sun Devils. Junior guard Eric Devendorf led the way with 21 points, including five 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Jonny Flynn (www.suathletics.com/jonny) scored 11 to go along with seven assists. Junior Arinze Onuaku contributed 12 points, and sophomore Rick Jackson had 13 points and eight rebounds. Reserve guard Andy Rautins rounded out SU’s double-figure scorers. He bounced back from a scoreless first-round game against Stephen F. Austin on Friday to net 17 points off the bench versus Arizona State. The Orange connected on 26 of its 47 field goal attempts for the game and made 9-of-20 (.450) attempts from 3-point range. Devendorf (5) and Rautins (3) combined for eight of SUs nine 3-pointers in the game. Devendorf moved past Demetris Nichols and now ranks third in school history with 206 career triples. Rautins is now in sole possession of seventh on that list (181). Despite Syracuses sharp shooting, the game was still close with six and a half minutes left. The Sun Devils had trailed by as many as 15 in the second half, but scored eight consecutive points as part of an overall 15-4 run to cut the SU lead to 61-57 with 6:36 to go. With the game on the line, the Orange turned to Rautins and Devendorf who teamed up for three straight 3-pointers in the span of 1:36 to push the margin back to 11, 70-59, at the four-minute mark. The Orange also benefitted from rock-solid free-throw shooting down the stretch. Syracuse hit eight of its 10 free throws in the final four minutes to help secure the win. The Orange could have put the game away sooner, but the Sun Devils’ 3-point shooting kept them in it. Thirteen of Arizona State’s 20 field goals in the contest came from beyond the arc, and the Sun Devils were 13-for-35 (.371) from long range in the game. Rihards Kuksiks and Ty Abbott did the majority of the damage. Kuksiks finished with a career-best 20 points, including six triples. He netted 15 points on five three’s in the first half. Abbott also had six 3-pointers and 20 points for the Sun Devils. Outside of Kuksiks and Abbott, the rest of the Sun Devils combined to go 1-for-12 (.083) from behind the 3-point line, including an 0-for-5 showing by Pac-10 Player of the Year James Harden. The Orange did a good job on Harden for the majority of the game, holding him to just 10 points, well below his season average of 20.4 ppg coming into Sunday. Harden did not score in the first half and he didn’t make his first field goal until there was 9:38 left in the contest. With Harden shut off, Syracuse used a pair of first-half scoring runs to take control of the game. Leading 16-13 with 12:40 to play in the opening stanza, the Orange held Arizona State scoreless for 6:20 and outscored the Sun Devils, 10-2, during that stretch to build a 26-15 lead. A trifecta from Kuksiks ended Arizona State’s scoring drought and brought the Sun Devils within eight, 26-18. But his three did little to slow down the Orange as SU immediately responded with a 13-6 scoring run to claim its biggest lead of the first half, 39-24, with 2:40 left before halftime. The Sun Devils, sensing the game was slipping away, scored eight of the game’s next 10 points to close the gap to nine, 41-32, at the intermission. Kuksiks had six of the eight points in the spurt on a pair of 3-pointers. The Orange maintained a comfortable margin in the opening stages of the second half and led by 15, 57-42 with 13:29 to go before the Sun Devils made their final rally. For Syracuse, it was the 13th time this season five players scored in double figures and the Orange improved to 12-1 overall in those games. In addition, the win marked the 799th victory of Boeheim’s career. He will have a chance to become the eighth Division I coach in NCAA history to win 800 games when Syracuse faces the Sooners on Friday.