At the 11:13 mark in the second half, Mookie Jones and James Southerland checked back into the game, the first second-half action for each. Left arm around Southerland, Jones smiled as the pair walked down the court to set up in Syracuse’s defense.

Their work was already done. They started it in the first half, and their teammates had finished it at the beginning of the second.

‘Me and Mookie are two sharpshooters,’ Southerland said. ‘We’ll be ready when our names are called.’

With a hot shooting night from beyond the arc — especially during a huge SU run that spanned the end of the first and beginning of the second halves — there was no repeat of Le Moyne’s shocking 2009 exhibition upset of Syracuse Tuesday. The Orange took care of business swiftly and easily, crushing Le Moyne 91-48 in front of 10,546 inside the Carrier Dome.

The Orange finished the night an eye-popping 11-of-16 from beyond the arc, good for 68 percent. And it came one game after a dismal 5-of-29 (17.2 percent) performance in Syracuse’s first exhibition game last Tuesday against Kutztown.

‘They went in,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said when asked the difference between his team’s 3-point shooting in the two games.

SU began its 3-point barrage early in the first half, finishing 6-of-10 in the first 20 minutes.

First, Kris Joseph nailed two 3s in the game’s opening minutes, showcasing his much-improved jump shot. He swished in one from the right and got a nice bounce on the other that came from the top of the key. Between the two shots from beyond the arc, Joseph added a pull-up jumper. He finished the night 4-of-5 from the field.

‘We got a lot of open shots,’ Joseph said. ‘My shooting is something that I’ve been working on all summer. My teammates did a good job of finding me on the perimeter so I didn’t have to force a shot up. I got open looks, and I was able to knock them down early.’

Toward the end of the first half, Southerland and Jones took over as Joseph sat. Against Le Moyne’s defense, Southerland and Jones fired six 3-pointers in the first half — and made four of them.

While the SU frontcourt got into foul trouble early, the 3-point onslaught led by the duo keyed a run near the end of the first half that blew the game open by halftime. Freshman center Fab Melo sat out the final 7:45 of the half after picking up his third foul of the game. Rick Jackson, who shifted to the middle of Boeheim’s 2-3 zone, played with two fouls.

‘It was great,’ Jones said of the run that would ensue, facilitated by him and Southerland. ‘Any time you get going to a crucial timeframe in the game and you start taking over, it’s a great thing. It was good. It really helped us.’

As Le Moyne mounted a run with just fewer than seven minutes left in the half, Southerland and Jones traded baskets. Jones drained a 3-pointer, and Southerland followed with a jumper — on a pass from Jones — to give the Orange an eight-point lead. Southerland drained another 3 — from Jones. And finally, Jones hit his second trey of the game off an assist from, yes, Southerland.

Jones finished the game with nine points, while Southerland had 13. They combined to go 6-of-9 from beyond the arc.

‘I feel like it’s just a connection,’ Southerland said. ‘We practice a lot, and we just know. He was open. I make a shot, the defense comes to me. That leaves Mookie open. And I just kick it to him because I know he’s going to make the shots.’

The Dolphins couldn’t keep up. Led by Jones and Southerland, SU went on a 17-7 run to end the half and put the game out of reach.

It was the same story in the second half, during which the Orange improved from its first-half 3-point percentage by hitting 5-of-6 from beyond the arc. First, Brandon Triche. Then, Scoop Jardine. Finally, Dion Waiters, and the 16-point halftime lead had turned into a complete blowout seven minutes into the half at 64-30.

All started by Jones and Southerland. Sitting beside his locker after the game, all Southerland could do was smile again.

Said Southerland: ‘The 3 definitely opens up the defense.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on November 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm