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Cooney Carries Syracuse Past Florida State For Sixth Straight Win

SU Athletics

Syracuse's first two ACC wins were filled with late drama, nail biting leads and last second shots that determined the outcome of the games.

The third one just featured a dominant performance from Trevor Cooney.

The junior guard scored a season-high 28 points, Rakeem Christmas notched his fifth double-double of the season and the Orange beat the Florida State Seminoles, 70-57, in the Carrier Dome on Sunday night.

"I just feed him," Michael Gbinije said.  "He's good working off the screens and whenever he gets hot, he's just on fire. So we just got to keep feeding him and look for him on the two-play."

Syracuse started conference play with a two point victory against Virginia Tech followed by a one point win over Georgia Tech.  But Cooney's breakout performance guided the Orange to an easy win, its sixth victory in a row.

"Trevor got a hot hand," Jim Boeheim said.  "Then he made some good plays off the dribble, which is the biggest part of the improvement to his game this year."

Cooney made Syracuse's first field goal of the game, a fadeaway midrange floater with the shot clock nearing zero.  From there, he just kept shooting. By halftime, he had 14 points on five threes.  Syracuse went to intermission with a 13 point lead, despite losing Chris McCullough to a knee injury at the 11:51 mark. 

"I felt really good," Cooney said.  "I was able to get going early and that's the key to having a really good shooting night is to get going early. The guys found me in great spots and I was just able to stay square and knock it down."

Cooney was especially danger in transition, where he was able to set up for clean catch-and-shoot threes.  He capped an 18-4 run for Syracuse midway through the first half with a fastbreak three after a handoff from Ron Patterson.

Syracuse's outside shooters also benefited from an improved performance by point guard Kaleb Joseph.  Even though he only scored two points, Joseph facilitated the offense with seven assists to just one turnover.  The Orange, as a team, only turned the ball over eight times during the game and Joseph was able to use his driving ability to set up open shots.

On one play in the first half, he drew a few defenders by cutting to the hoop. Instead of putting up a contested layup, he sent a bounce pass along the baseline to Gbinije, whose corner three gave the Orange an 18-10 lead.

Joseph got rewarded on the next play when Cooney sprung him for a wide open layup , his only field goal of the night. 

"He's getting better," Boeheim said.  "His floor game is good. I think he's just got to find that spot where he can make his play. He's close. I think he's much better. His defense has been better. "

The combination of Joseph and Cooney helped Syracuse maintain its large lead throughout the second half, something the team was unable to do in its last two showings.  The Seminoles were able to get within nine points at two different points in the second half, but never any closer.

Finally, Cooney capped off his night with one last three with 1:03 remaining.  He deftly ducked around a defender and heaved up a shot from the top of the key just before the shot clock expired.

Said Gbinije, "If he keeps this up, I think we're going to be good."