COLLEGE BASKETBALL
SU starts slow, but tops Cornell
SYRACUSE — Sooner or later, Syracuse’s penchant for poor starts is bound to come back and haunt.
Two days after manhandling upstate New York foe Colgate 86-51 with a solid performance from start to finish, the 16th-ranked Orange reverted to their rallying ways, coming from 16 points behind to beat hot-shooting Ryan Wittman and Cornell, 88-78, on Wednesday night.
It was biggest deficit Syracuse (8-0) has overcome since rallying to beat Rutgers, 86-84, on the road after trailing by 20 in January 2005. The Orange defeated both Kansas and Virginia this season after trailing by 13.
“This was the worst game of the season for us, by far,” Orange guard Andy Rautins said. “We let down early. We didn’t find shooters, but we stuck it out. We showed again that we’re a second-half team, but we don’t want to be a second- half team because we can get buried and may not be able to come back.”
Despite staring at the imposing Paul Harris for much of the game, Wittman nearly buried Syracuse (8-0) single-handedly, hitting nine three-pointers and scoring 33 points, both career highs. Wittman was 12 for 28 from the floor and played 39 minutes.
“That’s a lot of shots. I wasn’t necessarily trying to do that,” he said. “I was just trying to take what the defense gave me. They weren’t defending the down screen quite as well, and I got open a couple of times. They were kind of confused on what they were doing.”
The Orange trailed the entire first half and 6-foot-9, 275- pound center Arinze Onuaku was nearly invisible. Onuaku, averaging 13 points a game, did not take a shot and had one rebound in the period.
“We’ve been more patient every second half,” coach Jim Boeheim said. “Hopefully, we can do that in the first half. We’re still scoring.”
Jonny Flynn and Harris, both Niagara Falls High graduates, had 24 and 21 points respectively to pace Syracuse, which pressed to get back in the game and trailed only 40-35 at halftime. Eric Devendorf had 15 points, Onuaku finished with 12 and Rautins had 11.
“We made some really bad decisions,” Boeheim said. “We got some things out of our press, got them to take a couple of quick shots. We got back into it at halftime, or it could have been worse.”
Cornell (4-4), playing its fifth straight road game, hasn’t beaten Syracuse in 40 years, suffering 31 straight losses.
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• Tyler Hansbrough scored the first basket of both halves and finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds, leading top-ranked North Carolina to a 98-63 rout of No. 13 Michigan State at Detroit’s Ford Field. The Tar Heels (8-0) took control with an 11-3 run late in the first half, led by 14 points at halftime, then by as many as 30.
• Sam Young scored 23 points and DeJuan Blair was in control inside with 14 points and 17 rebounds, helping No. 3 Pittsburgh overcome a sluggish start to defeat city rival Duquesne, 78-51. Jermaine Dixon scored 12 points as the Panthers improved to 8-0 for the seventh consecutive season.
• Alex Franklin scored 21 points and Edwin Ubiles added 20 to lead Siena (3-3) past Loyola, Md. (2-6), 75-68, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener.
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