Kris Joseph wouldn’t let Scott Wood get off another potential dagger of a 3-pointer. Wood was open once again from the right side, free to try to add to his 18 points — all of which came on 3s — to give North Carolina State the lead with fewer than two minutes left against Syracuse.

Joseph snuffed it out, leaping and rejecting Wood’s attempt. He preserved SU’s two-point lead in yet another tight game.

‘Oh my God,’ said SU guard Scoop Jardine. ‘So big. I knew Kris was going to get one, because we were just so close to blocking him every time.’

Late in the game for Syracuse, it was all about preservation. Preservation that came with shutting down Wood, the Wolfpack’s top scorer. The Orange (8-0) did just that, adjusting defensively and surviving against the Wolfpack (4-3) 65-59 in front of 22,334 inside the Carrier Dome Saturday.

NC State only scored a single point in the last 7:22 of the game, and only three in the last 9:47, as SU shut down anything and everything the Wolfpack tried. The Orange struggled offensively during the same time period, but its defense did enough to help chip away at the Wolfpack’s lead and slowly build up a lead of its own.

‘Our defense has hung in there, kept us in,’ said SU head coach Jim Boeheim. ‘We’d have two or three losses if we were playing just average or pretty good defense.’

In the first half, though, that Orange defense allowed the Wolfpack to quickly climb back from a 31-18 deficit. Wood’s two consecutive 3-pointers trimmed the deficit to seven in just 46 seconds.

Both came as Wood had plenty of space to get the shot off, which drew Boeheim’s ire.

‘We left Wood open twice,’ he said. ‘You just can’t leave him open. He’s too good of a shooter.’

Still, Syracuse went into the locker room at halftime with momentum, as Jardine nailed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to give the Orange a 38-34 lead.

But the sluggish play carried over to the second half, as NC State opened up the period with an 8-0 run to take a 42-38 lead.

Each time the Orange attempted to make a run back, the Wolfpack responded. C.J. Fair knocked down a free throw, but Wood answered with a 3. Rick Jackson threw down a monstrous dunk, but Javier Gonzalez answered with a jumper from the left baseline to get back to a six-point lead at 53-47.

Syracuse wasn’t able to sustain a run until, down five, it ramped up the defensive intensity. Boeheim instituted a full-court press that forced two consecutive turnovers. Then, SU forced a shot-clock violation. A Jackson bucket that followed gave SU the lead at 57-56.

‘We limited our turnovers and forced them into a couple more,’ said SU forward Kris Joseph. ‘That was the key for us. … We forced them into some turnovers and some tough shots. Down the stretch, our defensive presence was what helped us win the game.’

That defensive presence started with a change on Wood. Joseph said the Orange was, in essence, playing a 3-2 zone instead of a 2-3, shading up to force Wood into contested shots.

And it worked. Wood started 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. He finished the game 2-of-9. And he missed four 3-pointers in the final five minutes, which would have either tied the game or given NC State the lead.

‘We had to locate that shooter,’ Jardine said. ‘Wood. He was making every shot. Every shot he took, I thought it was good. We located him. We made it tough for him. He got some looks, but the reason he missed is because we made it tough on him.’

While the Orange played stingy defense — at one point not allowing a Wolfpack shot on four consecutive possessions — its offense added points little by little to finally get the lead and then build it slowly.

And with 24 seconds left, Wood missed another 3-pointer. This time, Joseph was there to grab the rebound and get the ball to Brandon Triche. Wood fouled Triche immediately, and SU’s guard sank 1-of-2 free throws to finally give his team a comfortable, four-point lead with 17 seconds left.

Comfortable, because SU’s defense hadn’t given up four points in nearly 10 minutes.

‘We made some great defensive stops,’ Boeheim said. ‘Our defense has been good down the stretch in those situations.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on December 3, 2010 at 12:00 pm