When Jim Boeheim spoke about his team’s first half Tuesday against St. John’s, the Syracuse head coach said his team played ‘just about as well as we’ve played all year.’

That was after SU held the Red Storm to 18 first-half points and took a 21-point lead into halftime. Sunday, Boeheim’s squad held its latest opponent, Cincinnati, to 17 first-half points and took a 23-point lead into halftime.

Two strong first halves, two blowout wins and more lavish words from Boeheim.

‘In this league, you don’t win games by a lot. I don’t care who you play,’ Boeheim said. ‘Rarely do you play tremendous defense and good offense to do that, and these two games we’ve played tremendous defense and really good offense, too.’

Syracuse got going early and never let up as it cruised to its second consecutive blowout win, 87-63 over Cincinnati, Sunday afternoon in front of 25,139 fans at the Carrier Dome. The entire Syracuse starting five finished in double digits, led by point guard Jonny Flynn’s 17 points and forward Paul Harris’ 16.

The Orange started the game on a 6-0 run and quickly followed with a 13-0 run, taking a 19-4 lead before the Bearcats really got started. Another 9-0 run later in the half pushed the Syracuse lead to 20 points. Cincinnati (18-11, 8-8 Big East) never cut the lead lower than that the rest of the game, as Syracuse (21-8, 9-7) cruised to a win.

After falling victim to numerous slow starts, especially in the non-conference season, the Orange has taken to quick starts in its last two games. The biggest difference has been a renewed defensive effort, particularly in the early going, that has helped SU to consecutive blowouts.

‘We’re a completely different team when we play defense in the zone,’ Rautins said. ‘Everybody’s moving and talking. We can just be that team all the time if we want to, we just have to continue to do so, continue to talk to each other and communicate.’

Through the first nine minutes of Sunday’s game, Syracuse had allowed only four points, while committing no fouls and blocking two shots. Cincinnati went into the locker room shooting 20 percent from the field and 1-of-15 from deep.

The main difference, the players said, was an increase in activity with the Orange zone defense.

‘If you look at any good defensive team across the country, you look at Duke, they’re always active, you look at Pittsburgh, always active,’ Flynn said. ‘These good defensive teams are active, and I think we’re finally seeing that we have to be active to be a good defensive team.’

After waffling between the zone defense and the man-to-man earlier this season, Boeheim has stuck with his trademark 2-3 zone down the stretch. It’s not always the defense of choice for the players, but they’re starting to come around.

‘I honestly don’t like zone,’ Harris said. ‘I’m just being honest, I’ve always been a man-to-man person my whole life.’

But even Harris can’t help but point to the zone as a key reason for the Orange’s defensive turnaround. After giving up an average of 81 points in the six games before Tuesday, Syracuse is happy with any remedy.

‘If something works one time, coach is going to stick with it,’ Harris said. ‘He really believes in his zone, and I guess the players are starting to buy into the zone, and that’s what we’re going to work with.’

Sunday’s win marked the Orange’s 21st win of the season, with at least three games left to play, including the Big East tournament. With the win, the Orange all but locked up a first-round bye in the conference tournament, rewarded to the top eight seeds

With two regular-season games remaining – Tuesday vs. Rutgers and Saturday at Marquette – a blowout for the team’s 21st win put the Orange in strong position for its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2006.

For a team that’s had two years of woes in the month of March, a blowout win on March 1 is a good sign looking ahead to the tournament.

‘They say Cincinnati’s on the bubble, and that was a team that we had to beat,’ Flynn said. ‘And we handily beat them, so this should be a good statement for the selection committee to look on.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 1, 2009 at 12:00 pm