His day against St. John’s wasn’t great, but Saturday against Miami was the first time this season you could truly call a Trevor Cooney performance terrible.

More nights like those are going to come, though — shooters have off nights — and when they do, Syracuse proved it can battle through.

“You’re going to have bad shooting nights,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said during the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches’ teleconference on Monday.

Cooney failed to make a 3 against the Red Storm on Dec. 15, but only got off three shots from beyond the arc as SJU draped him on defense all game. Against Miami (Fla.), the guard got separation, but just couldn’t knock down his shots. He was a paltry 2-for-12 from 3-point range, but the No. 2 Orange still managed to pull out a 49-44 victory. It wasn’t pretty, but Syracuse got the job done.

“You’ve got to be able to play no matter what happens to individuals,” Boeheim said. “They’re going to have off nights. Shooters are going to have off nights.”

Cooney’s performance against Miami was bad, but it wasn’t necessarily an outlier. Aside from Tyler Ennis and Rakeem Christmas, no SU player shot better than 50 percent from the field. Only three members of the Orange scored in double figures, and C.J. Fair made Syracuse’s only other 3-pointer.

Part of that was due to the Hurricanes’ defense — the Orange was just 3-of-15 from the arc as a team, but SU also only shot 36.2 percent from the field.

Boeheim deflected some of the credit to Miami’s defense and also expressed confidence that Cooney would be able to bounce back. After being shut out against St. John’s, Cooney turned around and hung 17 on High Point five days later.

A year ago, he wouldn’t have had the chance to bounce back like that. Nothing has changed, though, Boeheim said.

“He’s just playing more,” he said. “That’s all.”

Published on January 6, 2014 at 5:05 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2