They had just a one-point lead midway through the first half – thanks to a 3-10 shooting start – and the Orange offense looked on its way to another questionable scoring output. Syracuse didn’t make a three-pointer all night, an all-time low on a team that already struggles in that department.
The shots, again, just wouldn’t fall.
Then Kaleb Joseph drove coast-to-coast and rolled in a righty floater off the glass to give Syracuse a 10-7 lead at the 12:17 mark. Joseph’s leaner started an overpowering 31-10 run by the Orange to end the first half.
Suddenly, Syracuse’s shots just wouldn’t miss.
The Orange (5-1) never trailed after its Jekyll-and-Hyde first half, as Syracuse stormed past the Holy Cross Crusaders for a 72-48 win in the Carrier Dome. After failing to pull away from the Crusaders early on, the Orange hit its last 12-of-21 shots (57 percent) in the final 12 minutes and 17 seconds before intermission. Rakeem Christmas scored a career-high 25 points to go with eight rebounds.
“I thought in the first half, we played as well as we’d like to play,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “We’d played very well on the defensive end and offensively, we got the ball to Rak and he was real good inside. We handled their pressure well and we had only four turnovers.”
It didn’t hurt Syracuse that Chris McCullough was taking many of those shots during its dominating run. The Crusaders held McCullough to just one missed jumper for the first ten minutes of the game.
But McCullough made all five of his shots during Syracuse’s scoring run, almost registering a double-double by halftime. McCullough was an offensive leader once again, finishing the game with 14 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks. He’s recorded at least ten points in all six games this season. It was just another display of all the weapons McCullough has to offer – running the floor, altering shots on defense and hitting from all angles on the offensive side.
He had a highlight reel play late in the first half when Christmas gave him a soft pass from underneath the bucket. McCullough took two steps from near the free throw line and then threw down a two-handed jam.
Then he showed off his soft touch about a minute later when he sank a midrange jumper over his defender from the left corner.
The Crusaders played a pair of guards shorter than six-feet and just one starter taller than 6-foot-7 so McCullough feasted on smaller competition. The Orange had almost three times as many points in the paint as the undersized Crusaders. But after the game, Boeheim decided to knock McCullough down a peg, saying that he expects a dominating performance when given a clear height advantage.
“If I’m 6-10 and I’m playing against 6-3 guys, I should be able to get 14 points,” Boeheim said. “I think that should be something that I can accomplish.”
Boeheim even criticized one ESPN basketball insider who projected the star freshman to be a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Although McCullough may not be able to replicate his production in ACC play, Syracuse still has several areas for improvement besides him. Namely, its three-point shooting where the Orange went an anemic 0-14 on Friday. And Syracuse’s bench only chipped in eight points on the night. Tyler Roberson wasn’t in the starting lineup again with a muscle strain so the team’s depth got even thinner.
Still, Joseph said that McCullough’s presence alone will create chances for his teammates.
“Teams are going to be forced to double down so that’s going to open up a lot of opportunities moving forward,” Joseph said. “So I think we’ll get the opportunities and we’ll make them.”