Florida Gets RickRolled, Orange Comes Through In Tight Spots
Rick Jackson was a monster in the first half against Florida Thursday night – 16 points, 7 rebounds, and a thunderous alley-oop to end it. He was surely due for a breakout game and he delivered in a big way. Florida had no answer as Rick went baseline, chipped in a few buckets with his patented left hand and added some garbage buckets off offensive rebounds where it didn’t even look like his feet left the floor.
In the second half, Jackson took more of a backseat while Wes Johnson Andy Rautins and Kris Joseph stepped up to fend off a pair of furious Florida rallies. All season long, Orange fans have waited to see who leads ‘Cuse back from a rough stretch and provides the difference needed to secure a victory, but tonight, there wasn’t any one player leading the surge.
The Gators were down 10 with 4:30 left in the game. Within a minute, the deficit was cut to four, but everyone on the floor for the Orange teamed up to put the game away. From that point, here is how they scored to close out the game:
Wes Johnson jumper
Andy Rautins layup
Rick Jackson free throw
Kris Joseph free throw
Andy Rautins free throw (2x)
Kris Joseph dunk
Scoop Jardine free throw (2x)
Having so many scoring options late in games is going to give opposing defenses massive headaches, because everyone is a factor – you can’t afford to leave someone open by doubling another man.
That being said, it was easy to see that ‘Cuse hadn’t played a close game for awhile by the way they handled the ball late in the game. Up seven with four minutes left, rather than going to work on the clock, SU opted for what would’ve been an electrifying lob play, but Kris Joseph couldn’t flush it down.
*In those situations, considering the lead and time remaining, I’m not advocating pocketing the ball until the shot clock hits 5 and going iso hoping you can draw contact and get a whistle, but at least take a little time and try to create an easy attempt – if not for you, for a teammate.
Two trips down the court later, Andy Rautins shot a three with over 25 seconds left on the shot clock. On the one hand, you have to admire the killer instinct in the Orange, but on the other hand, they could’ve done a much better job managing the clock.
The only other thing to harp on from this game was the woeful night at the stripe. Without Arinze Onuaku contributing, SU made just 58% of its attempts. Fortunately, Florida was even worse (53%), so the Orange were able to escape. It’s really hard to be mad a team when three players post double-doubles, one off the bench, in a game on the road against the 11th-ranked team in the country.
