Devon McMillan must not have gotten the message the first time.

With about 13 minutes left in the first half, Syracuse center Baye Moussa Keita turned the freshman’s hard drive into a highlight reel block, stuffing McMillan’s shot back into his hands and then knocking it out of bounds.

But that didn’t hinder the Fordham guard from trying again on the next possession.

McMillan looked like he had an easy bucket on a run-out after an Orange turnover, but Keita chased him down and again sent his shot attempt out of bounds. The SU sophomore was called for a foul on the play as McMillan fell to the floor, but Keita still clapped emphatically as the Rams guard picked himself up off the court.

‘I was really sending a message,’ Keita said. ‘Nothing is going to be easy tonight. You have to earn it. We’re not going to let you score an easy basket.’

That message registered loud and clear in Syracuse’s season opener Saturday. The Orange defense shut down the Fordham (0-1) attack, allowing No. 5 Syracuse (1-0) to build a big lead and coast to a 78-53 win Saturday in front of 22,906 fans at the Carrier Dome. Kris Joseph led the Orange with 16 points while Dion Waiters tacked on 14 coming off the bench to support the strong defensive effort. The Rams didn’t make their third field goal of the game until nearly 13 minutes into the action and shot just 25.9 percent from the field before halftime.

‘I thought our defense was good,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I think Fordham is a pretty good basketball team, but I think our defense was really good. We didn’t give them a lot of easy looks.’

Offensive mistakes by the Orange allowed Fordham to hang around early on, but the Rams never really threatened to pull the upset thanks to the Syracuse defense. Fordham tried to shoot over the 2-3 zone early in the first half, but SU’s perimeter defenders harassed the Rams’ shooters.

On one possession out of a timeout, Fordham needed a bucket to cut into the Orange’s 10-point lead.

Freshman guard Bryan Smith caught a pass on the right wing and appeared to have an open look. But as he went up for the shot, James Southerland and Scoop Jardine both got a hand in his face. Southerland got a piece of the shot, the deflection landed in Fab Melo’s hands and C.J. Fair hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession to give SU a 21-8 lead.

‘We’re so long and we have guys who can rebound, guys who can get out to shooters,’ junior guard Brandon Triche said. ‘With us being in better shape I think than the years before, we’re a little quicker getting out to 3-point shooters.’

Fordham shot just 4-for-21 from deep against the zone, but struggled to score inside, too.

The Rams’ leading scorer from last year, forward Chris Gaston, had trouble finding a rhythm in the middle of the Orange defense and only hit four shots in the game.

Keita and Melo both used their height advantage over the 6-foot-7 Gaston to stop him. Melo had four of SU’s seven blocks in the game and drew a charge on Gaston early in the second half.

‘I think the perimeter guys did a really good job, and when they got inside, our big guys were there,’ Boeheim said. ‘Fab drew that charge and blocked a couple shots. I think Gaston’s a very good player. We just made it difficult for him to get easy shots in there.’

Syracuse’s offense finally picked up near the halfway point of the first half.

Despite 10 turnovers before the break, SU went into halftime with a 32-19 lead. In the second half, the Orange only committed five turnovers en route to a 46-point effort in the last 20 minutes.

Fordham shot better after halftime, but SU forced 11 turnovers in the second half. And with the improved offense, Syracuse never led by less than 13 points in the second half on its way to the blowout win.

‘Defense leads to offense at the end of the day,’ Waiters said. ‘If we’re working hard on defense, we’re going to get rewarded. That’s what we talked about coming out of the timeouts and before the game. Just work hard on defense and everything else falls in place.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on November 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm