Michael Carter-Williams drained a 3-pointer from the left corner and the action stayed right there. After knocking down the open shot to give Syracuse a slight cushion on St. Rose, Carter-Williams remained on that end of the floor, part of a full-court press designed to provide some defensive fury.

Sheldon Griffin couldn’t handle it. The Golden Knights forward coughed up the ball soon after receiving the inbounds pass. Dion Waiters came up with the steal and made a layup.

The Syracuse defense stayed upcourt, continuing to coerce St. Rose into making mistakes. Another turnover happened immediately, forcing St. Rose head coach Brian Beaury to burn a timeout as he tried to help his suddenly flustered team.

‘I know they had a little trouble with it, we got a few steals in the first half with it,’ Carter-Williams said. ‘In the second half, we definitely picked it up and just played a lot harder in it and got deflections, steals and gave us easy baskets.’

After an inauspicious opening 20 minutes that ended in a tie score between No. 5 Syracuse and Division II St. Rose, the Orange relied on the full-court press early in the second half. That press helped SU force 17 second-half turnovers in an 87-69 win over the Golden Knights in front of 8,110 in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday. In Syracuse’s second and final exhibition game, the defense and, consequently, the offense was led by Carter-Williams, Waiters and the rest of SU’s second team that broke open the game in the second half. Carter-Williams made three 3s and scored all 11 of his points in the second half.

But that was after a first half ending that quieted the crowd. On the final possession of the first half, St. Rose guard Andre Pope held the ball for the final seconds, pulling up and hitting an NBA-range 3 from the Carrier sticker beyond the arc.

That tied the game at 30 heading into the locker room, leaving SU head coach Jim Boeheim irate.

‘Coach came in and he killed us,’ Waiters said. ‘And you either man up or you’re fools. You know, we’re not fools over here. We took responsibility on ourselves.’

SU still came out slow to start the second half. The Orange traded points with the Golden Knights, passing the lead back and forth for the first five minutes.

Then Scoop Jardine made an ill-advised alley-oop attempt to C.J. Fair, one that went out of bounds and gave the ball back to St. Rose. Jardine immediately came out and Carter-Williams replaced him with the score 43-40 in favor of SU.

Carter-Williams ignited Syracuse both offensively and defensively. He knocked down that first 3 to put SU up 46-42 early in the second half, and then he helped Syracuse go to work on the press.

St. Rose center Dominykas Milka got trapped in the left corner near SU’s basket. With nowhere to go and no support, Milka flung the ball upcourt. It went out of bounds and led to St. Rose’s timeout.

From there, defense led to offense. After another St. Rose turnover, Waiters found Carter-Williams on the baseline, who forced a pass inside to Rakeem Christmas. The freshman forward made a layup despite getting fouled, pushing SU’s lead to 55-44.

‘The second half we were a little bit more aggressive defensively,’ Boeheim said. ‘We got the ball inside a little bit better, and I thought the difference was our pressure was good and we forced some turnovers.’

The Golden Knights crumbled trying to break the press. For the game, they turned the ball over 27 times.

Sometimes, they couldn’t even get the ball inbounds. After a Kris Joseph layup put SU up 11, Pope’s inbounds pass was tipped out of bounds by Waiters flying across the court to get in front of the intended recipient.

From near midcourt, Griffin tried inbounding with SU forward James Southerland in his face. His first inbounds attempt was deflected out instantly by Southerland. His second attempt was tipped by Southerland. As Pope tried to come down with the deflected ball, he committed a backcourt violation.

Off the turnover, Carter-Williams knocked down another 3-pointer to push SU’s lead to 14.

But after the game, Boeheim was a little wary of the Orange’s dependency on full-court pressure going forward. Even though it unnerved St. Rose, Boeheim said other teams will be able to handle the pressure.

‘The pressure was the difference, and that’s good for this game,’ Boeheim said. ‘But it’s not something you can rely on.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on November 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr