Scoop Jardine’s numbers jump off the stat sheet in Syracuse’s 65-59 victory over North Carolina State on Saturday. Twenty-three points. But further down the line, another number is more telling for SU head coach Jim Boeheim of the state of his team — 21 shots.

‘Offensively we have to do better,’ Boeheim said. ‘The only guy that is getting a lot of shots is Scoop, and he has to find people. He probably has to take six or seven fewer shots and give it to people.’

The 23 points, some of which came at clutch moments, marked somewhat of a rebound game for Jardine off his scoreless performance against Cornell that came on 0-for-5 shooting from the floor.

But the 21 shots were the other side, somewhat of a continuation of the Cornell game and his performance overall in the four games after his career night against Detroit. In those four games, he shot 9-of-42 (21.4 percent) from the floor.

Hitting 7-of-21 from the field Saturday, Jardine shot just 33 percent. And that included just 25 percent (2-of-8) from beyond the 3-point line.

‘I made some shots, and I was just being aggressive,’ Jardine said. ‘Keep trying to make plays. I think I could have settled in a little bit.’

Boeheim, however, defended the number of shots Jardine put up. To Boeheim, it’s just the reality of where his team stands right now.

Kris Joseph was 3-of-12 from the floor. Brandon Triche shot the same percentage, going 2-of-8. Overall, Boeheim’s team lacks shooters. That, he said, puts more pressure on Jardine.

‘Scoop is taking a couple because he sees we’re not scoring,’ Boeheim said. ‘He is probably trying to force that action a little bit.’

Like most of the Orange on Saturday, Jardine came out of the gate on fire. He found his big men down low — Rick Jackson and Fab Melo — for easy layups and dunks in the first three-plus minutes. He followed that up later with two 3-pointers to give SU a 19-11 lead.

But soon after, the struggles started. Even after his buzzer-beater at the end of the first half to give the Orange a 38-34 lead going into the locker room, he ran over to Boeheim, almost trying to excuse himself from taking a fadeaway jumper.

And as Syracuse mounted its comeback down 53-49, Jardine hit two clutch free throws and drove in for a score. He also assisted a Jackson shot that gave SU the lead for good.

But even for Jardine, that didn’t complete his performance Saturday.

‘Some of them,’ he said, when asked if he liked most of the shots he put up. ‘Some of them. A lot of them, I think going into the defense, I could have kicked to shooters. I’m going to do that next time.’

Wait…

In Jim Boeheim’s words, two consecutive Scott Wood 3-pointers in the first half, which started the N.C. State comeback, came because Dion Waiters didn’t shift over in the zone.

‘Dion can make plays, he just can’t play defense,’ Boeheim said. ‘He left a guy open twice in a row. We had a 12-point lead to make a change and he did not get to the guy twice, and that can’t happen.’

After Wood made the second of those two 3-pointers to, in essence, cut SU’s lead in half, Boeheim was irate on Syracuse’s sideline and called a timeout. His eyes were on Waiters as the freshman guard strolled to the sidelines.

But from Waiters’ mouth, Wood wasn’t his responsibility.

‘I didn’t leave him open,’ Waiters said. ‘That wasn’t my position. I take the transition guy.’

Whatever the case, Waiters and the rest of the SU defense shut down Wood after those two 3-pointers. Wood started 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. He finished the game 2-of-9.

‘We had to cheat out on him,’ Waiters said. ‘Spread the zone a little bit. We were able to get our big, key stops down the stretch. And we got the ‘W.”

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on December 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm