Irish Eyes Not Smiling as Orange Hammers Notre Dame

Now that is fast-break basketball.

In a game billed as a battle between two offensively skilled teams, the Syracuse Orange rang up 39 points on the break Saturday to race past the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 93-74.

Syracuse, coming off an 88-74 shellacking at Georgetown on Wednesday, used a harassing man-to-man defense to improve to 17-2 on the season and 5-1 in conference play. The Irish dropped to 12-5 and 3-3.

For fans of high-scoring games, this one didn’t disappoint.

From the opening tip, Syracuse was determined to score the ball inside, as both Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson went to work.

Onuaku was a beast on the interior as he led the Orange with 19 points (on 9-of-12 shooting), hauled down eight rebounds, and swatted away four shots.

Included in his highlight package was a coast-to-coast layup in traffic, probably to the chagrin of Jim Boeheim, but definitely to the delight of the crowd.

Jackson was no slouch either.

The sophomore posted a double-double with 14 points, 10 boards (four offensive), three blocks and a thunderous fast-break dunk off of a feed from Jonny Flynn.

But the most important contribution Onuaku and Jackson made came on the defensive end.

The duo forced Notre Dame center Luke Harangody, the reigning Big East Player of the Year, into a miserable 9-of-28 day shooting.

Harangody still finished the game with 25 points and 16 rebounds, but he worked equally hard on both ends of the court.

Syracuse used balanced scoring in putting up the 93 points with six players in double figures.

Flynn orchestrated much of the fast-break opportunities with 17 points (including three big 3-pointers early on to help set the tone) and nine assists with only three turnovers.

Paul Harris, Flynn’s high school teammate from Niagara, chalked up Syracuse’s second double-double on the day with 15 points and 10 boards. For good measure, the junior imitated his buddy Flynn by dishing out five assists of his own.

Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins chipped in 16 and 10 points respectively, including three 3-pointers and five of the Orange’s nine steals.

Yesterday, I wrote an article on what Syracuse needed to accomplish to beat Notre Dame. Let’s see how the Orange fared.

Make Harangody play defense

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