PISCATAWAY, N.J. —Scoop Jardine sized up Jerome Seagears at the top of the key. For much of the game, Jardine penetrated against the Rutgers’ guards, passing or attempting to create his own shot in the paint.

Jardine’s instincts read otherwise in this moment. With the Orange clinging to a four-point lead and just more than a minute to play, Jardine took the space Seagears gave him and drilled a dagger from beyond the arc.

‘I knew I was driving the whole game, and I knew he was going to back up off me,’ Jardine said. ‘So I wanted to get my feet set and go into the shot with rhythm and confidence, and I knocked it down.’

Jardine’s 3-pointer with 1:12 to play punctured the upset hopes of a hungry Scarlet Knights squad. It also capped off a brilliant sequence by the Orange guard in the closing minutes. Behind Jardine’s 11 second-half points —seven in the final five minutes —No. 2 Syracuse (27-1, 14-1 Big East) pulled past Rutgers (12-15, 4-10 Big East) 74-64 in front of a sold-out crowd of 8,093 in The RAC on Sunday. Jardine finished with 17 points and seven assists, and C.J. Fair contributed a career-high 21 points to carry Syracuse.

The Orange overcame a Herculean performance by RU forward Gilvydas Biruta — who finished with 21 points and seven rebounds — against its 2-3 zone by ending the contest on a 10-2 run to win its seventh straight.

‘Scoop made good plays down the stretch. That’s what you hope for from a senior guard,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I think he’s been doing it all year.’

Coming off an abysmal shooting game at Louisville in which he went 0-of-8 from the field, Jardine said the key to Sunday’s performance was aggressiveness. Jardine energized the offense both with his intuitive dishes and capacity to score.

In the final minute of the first half, he drove into the paint but couldn’t maneuver his way to the rim. He faded away to his left, lofting up a lob near the rim, where C.J. Fair came through to finish another shot and put the Orange up 38-34.

Five of his seven assists were results of lobs to the rim that Fair, Brandon Triche or Dion Waiters finished.

‘They’re plays you have to live with, but I make a lot of them, and I just have to play with freedom,’ Jardine said.

Syracuse led 40-34 at halftime, but the lead never grew larger than seven in the first 19 minutes of the second half. Rutgers matched SU punch for punch with a frenzied crowd behind them. The Scarlet Knights have defeated No. 14 Florida, No. 23 Notre Dame and Connecticut in The RAC. At times, Syracuse looked like the next victim.

But the Orange remained resilient. As Rutgers closed within 42-39 early in the second half, Jardine drove hard toward the basket from the left wing. Myles Mack fouled him on the way in, and as Jardine watched his runner bank in as the whistle sounded, he celebrated emphatically.

When Eli Carter knocked down a 3 to pull Rutgers within 53-50, Jardine drove and dished to Kris Joseph at the top of the key to counter. After the Scarlet Knights got within two just a couple of minutes later, Melo buried two huge free throws in a one-and-one situation, keeping the Orange ahead 58-54 with seven minutes left.

‘I thought those were two big plays,’ Boeheim said. ‘Then Scoop. The rest was Scoop.’

Jardine carried the Orange past Florida in December with clutch plays down the stretch. He was deadly from 3 to bury Connecticut last weekend.

The senior played with veteran poise and courage again Sunday.

‘We make shots,’ Joseph said. ‘The leadership, making the right plays down the stretch, that’s huge and that’s what we did.’

A Mike Poole jumper brought RU within 64-62 with three minutes to go. A defensive stop would provide the Scarlet Knights with an opportunity to tie the game — something it didn’t do in the second half.

Off a feed from Waiters, Jardine took the ball on the right side. After the game, he said he thought his defender figured he was going to drive baseline.

Instead, he dribbled back toward the middle and buried a critical two points from 18 feet away.

Rutgers had two possessions to cut into the four-point lead and didn’t score. One missed shot and two turnovers.

Those blunders cost Rutgers as Jardine rose for 3 with just more than a minute remaining — sinking the shot and the upset-minded Scarlet Knights.

‘I work on my game so much for these moments,’ Jardine said. ‘I can take criticism. I’ve been taking it my whole career. And with that being said, it helped me for those moments to go out there and make winning plays for my teammates to win the game and for myself.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on February 18, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr