After a cold start to the season, Michael Gbinije has given the Orange a recent offensive spark with three straight games with at least ten points.
On Sunday, he gave the Carrier Dome crowd of 22,508 fans another reason to celebrate with a highlight-reel play midway through the first half. Gbinije crept behind the defense, skied for the rebound and swung around the rim for a two-handed putback slam after Tyler Roberson's three bounced right above the basket.
Gbinije shot 10-13 from the field and scored a career-high 24 points, along with eight assists and six rebounds. His soft shooting touch and powerful posterizing jam propelled Syracuse to an 85-67 win over Long Beach State.
"That was just a cool experience," Gbinije said. "I'm glad we came up with a win and continued the way we're playing."
Gbinije's dunk began a 13-2 Syracuse run that turned a four-point 49ers lead into a seven-point Orange advantage. The Orange started slow, perhaps showing some signs of rust from the six-day holiday break. Then Syracuse went to the full-court press defense and Long Beach State was flummoxed when faced with pressure. The 49ers turned the ball over 11 times in the first half alone, including a few miscues in their own zone that generated a few high-percentage scoring chances for the Orange.
Gbinije and Roberson forced an errant pass by collapsing into the corner for a trap on one inbounds play. After Trevor Cooney dove for the loose ball, he batted it over to Roberson who found Gbinije inside for an uncontested layup. By setting up those easy opportunities, Syracuse was able to shoot 57.7 percent, its best single game total of the season.
"I thought, offensively, we were as good tonight through the whole game as we've been all year," Jim Boeheim said. "We moved the basketball. When Rak (Christmas) got it and got doubled, he got it out of there."
Besides Gbinije, Christmas had a team-high 24 points. He's now scored in double figures in all but one of Syracuse's 12 games.
Even so, the Orange only led by four points at intermission after a back-and-forth first half. But after a 49er dunk early in the second half, Syracuse netted the next seven straight points and never trailed for the rest of the game.
Gbinije was the offensive catalyst, again, as he's averaged 17.7 points and 60 percent shooting over the last three games. He's also been one of Syracuse's best ball distributors and playmakers during that span. At 6-foot-6, he's versatile enough to mix ballhandling skills with driving abilities. He set a personal high in assists (eight), partly because his offensive outbursts of late have taken some of the attention off of his teammates. Gbinije assisted on a trio of first-half threes by Trevor Cooney, including one just before the halftime buzzer.
But at the end of the second half, it was a Gbinije layup with about a minute left that sealed the win and capped off a career night.
"When he's aggressive and he's making shots and he's going off the dribble," Trevor Cooney said, "we're a way better team."