James Southerland’s celebration started before his shot even got to the rim.

With his 3-pointer from the top of the key still on its arc toward the hoop, Southerland lifted both his arms out to his side to welcome the cheers he knew would be coming.

And sure enough, while the Syracuse forward backpedaled toward the Orange’s defensive end, his shot swished through the net.

Southerland and No. 4 SU (7-0) drained 13-of-30 3-pointers Tuesday in the Orange’s 84-48 win over Eastern Michigan (4-3) in front of 19,646 fans in the Carrier Dome. The Eagles played a 2-3 zone the entire game, and Syracuse had little difficulty shooting over the top of it. EMU managed to hang around in the first half thanks to the efforts of 5-foot-10 guard Darrell Lampley, but once the Orange buckled down on him defensively, the Eagles struggled to score. And after that, the barrage of 3’s by SU turned the game into an easy blowout win for the Orange.

‘Offensively, we were able to penetrate, get to the basket and get open 3-pointers,’ junior guard Brandon Triche said. ‘And we were able to make them this game.’

The win came in Syracuse’s first game since former associate head coach Bernie Fine was fired Sunday. Fine is facing allegations that he molested three boys during his tenure with the Orange. And those accusations and the potential scandal overshadowed the easy SU victory.

‘As you see, it’s everywhere,’ Southerland said. ‘Basically, you just do what you need to do when it comes to the court. That’s all we need to focus on.’

Early on in the game, Syracuse struggled to contain Lampley. The Eagles diminutive senior guard used the pick and roll to perfection against SU’s man-to-man defense for the first 12 minutes of action. Multiple times he either pulled up for 3 if the defense didn’t show on him, or he drove all the way to the hoop and finished with a layup.

He scored 12 points in the first 12 minutes to help Eastern Michigan build a 21-18 lead.

‘For a little guy, he was getting in there against the trees, and he was finishing at the basket,’ Joseph said. ‘We should’ve fouled him a couple times in the first half, maybe intimidate him a little bit. He did well for his team.’

But Lampley’s success quickly evaporated as SU switched its attention to shutting down the Eagles top scorer. The next time he ran a pick and roll, Triche stuck with him and got a hand in his face on a 3-pointer that clanged off the rim.

His last bucket of the first half came at the eight-minute mark, and he didn’t score again until just more than 3:20 after halftime.

‘He was breaking us down and getting buckets and getting his teammates buckets,’ Triche said. ‘But once we were able to stop him, we were able to deny the wings and get in transition.’

Once Syracuse took away Lampley, the rest of the EMU players couldn’t muster up any offense. And from there, the Orange’s 3-point shooting turned the game into a blowout.

SU finished the first half on a 14-3 run to give Syracuse a 32-24 lead going into halftime. Early in the second half, Triche and Joseph buried back-to-back 3’s to extend the advantage to 16 points.

And from there, the Eagles never got closer than 12, as the Orange turned the second half into a glorified dunk contest.

I feel like when one guy gets hot, (defenses) kind of lean toward him and say forget about the next guy,’ Southerland said. ‘And if you give somebody an open shot, they’re going to hit it. I feel like when one guy gets hot offensively, it spreads on the team.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on November 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm