Robert Morris.
Columbia.
Colgate.
St. Bonaventure.
Oakland.
Rutgers.

These are just some of the teams who scored more points against the Orange than Georgetown’s 56 on Monday night. It’s not often that you see the 7th ranked team in the country spotted 14 points on the road right out of the gate against a top 5 team. It’s even less often to see the home team come back as quickly and defiantly, and then pour it on.

Yep, I think this one gets it: The Farley.

A great night from the Syracuse bench was key to the victory every bit as was the clampdown defense post-16:57, as Scoop brought a shovel with him off the bench to dig SU out of the early deficit, and sixth starter/point forward Kris Joseph tallied a team-high 15 points. Meanwhile, the Hoya bench collectively contributed as many points as I did. While it was an unwelcome surprise to see Georgetown jump out so quickly, you knew that with SU’s perimeter defense and firepower of their own, it couldn’t last forever.

The second half was won on the boards. Every time the Hoyas thought they had an easy offensive rebound or point-blank shot, Rick Jackson, Arinze Onuaku and Wes Johnson were there to bully and deny. The aggregate of all of Johnson’s leaps Monday night, whether they were for blocks or rebounds, covered enough distance to make approximately 900 manned moon missions. Even after watching him play over 20 games, I’m still amazed at not just how high he can get, but also by how he can come down with the ball despite giving up some muscle. It’s almost enough to make me forget about Hakim Warrick for awhile. Almost.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the night Andy Rautins had. 15 points, six assists, six steals, 9-10 from the line, one turnover, one turned ankle in 39 minutes. By this point, Andy’s been dinged and roughed up so many times that SU fans have become pretty desensitized when they see him on the ground for more than 5 seconds. Nothing fazes him – we know he’ll be back up, knocking down an NBA-distance three with someone right in his grill in a matter of seconds.

But back to the crowd, while there’s still a month left until the home tilt against Villanova, it’s crazy to imagine how the Dome might sound for that one between ESPN Gameday, and first place in the conference possibly at stake. Gather your minions, Pat Manley.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 7:00 am by Brian G. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.