One smooth shot finally brought the tentative Carrier Dome crowd to its feet.
With nine minutes left in the game, Hampton cut Syracuse’s lead down from 11 to five and the upset bid went from a prayer to a possibility.
That’s when Trevor Cooney took a Tyler Roberson handoff and nailed a three pointer from the top of the key. Syracuse took a 48-40 lead with 8:53 left in the game and never led by fewer than six points for the rest of the way. It was only Cooney’s second three of the game, but it came at the perfect time for the Orange.
“He was aggressive tonight the whole game,” Jim Boeheim said on Cooney. “He’s not getting a lot of good looks, but he’s going to be aggressive and he’ll get his shots. Nobody needs to worry about Trevor Cooney. He’ll be fine.”
The Orange (2-0) hung on for a 65-47 win against the Hampton Pirates on Sunday afternoon, in front of 22,848 home fans. Rakeem Christmas scored a team-high 15 points and set a personal record with 16 rebounds. The senior center was, once again, a strong defensive presence as the anchor of Syracuse’s zone. His rebounding dominance kept Hampton to just one shot on most possessions and the Pirates got a mere eight second-chance points. Although he committed four personal fouls, Christmas was also able to get to the line himself, where he made five-of-seven free throw attempts.
“I just want to go out there and be aggressive – just do everything that coach wants us to do,” Christmas said. “That’s what I tried to do tonight and I guess I did it.”
Besides Christmas, the only scorer in double figures was Chris McCullough, who netted 13 points on 4-7 shooting.
Just two days before, Hampton gave up 90 points in a blowout loss to Iowa. But its 2-3 zone confused the struggling Syracuse offense, which didn’t have a field goal for five minutes and six seconds of game time before Cooney’s three.
“The first time you play against a zone sometimes for a whole game like that, you’re a little tentative,” Boeheim said. “We weren’t quite as fluid. I thought we did some things against it, but we didn’t attack it quite as well as we’d like to. But in a close game like that, it’s how do you finish?”
It’s the second time Syracuse has found itself in a close situation this year, including a narrow eight point exhibition win against Carleton. And, again, the Orange pulled away late and hit shots in key moments. This time, Syracuse scored ten unanswered points, which gave it a commanding 58-42 lead with 2:42 to play. McCullough finished the 10-0 run with a put-back layup after an offensive rebound.
“Everything is going well,” McCullough said. “I’m being real aggressive, going to the rim and taking the shots that I’m looking for.”
McCullough - a Bronx native - is headed back home to New York City next week, where the Orange will face California in Madison Square Garden on Thursday. But his coach, meanwhile, was less optimistic about the team’s future. The Orange scored 34 fewer points against Hampton than in the season opener against Kennesaw State. And while Syracuse’s frontcourt continues to dominate, its outside shooting has been shaky through two games. The team has shot just 27 percent from behind-the-arc, down from its 33 percent mark of last season.
“Last year, we were just a little bit more advanced and we were able to win those games,” Boeheim said. “This year, those games are going to be difficult. We’re going to have to work to get there. There’s a lot of work to do with this team. We’re nowhere near where we were last year, at this same time.”
Added Boeheim, “Not close.”