The Orange Get Their Groove Back

     The No.7 Syracuse Orange(14-1) once again put together a huge second half to beat the Memphis Tigers(10-4) 74 to 57.  However, the first half was extremely tight, as Memphis guard Roburt Sallie lit it up from downtown hitting 4 of 4.  The Cuse also struggled with turnovers in the first half, as Memphis turned those lose balls into a 6 point lead at one point.  Nonetheless, the turning point in the game was the CLUTCH three pointer by SU guard Andy Rautins to tie up the game 32-32 at the very end of the first half.  The crowd went wild and finally was what the Orange needed to get momentum going into the second half.
      The second half was dominated by The Cuse, as Wesley Johnson put the team on his shoulders for a team high 19 points.  His leadership brought SU out of the funk that had allowed SU to lose to Pitt and only play to a tie in the first half to a bunch of backups at Memphis.  Memphis has been solid this year, however, they lost a lot of pro talent over the last couple years.  Therefore, with Johnson leading the way, other SU players picked up the slack and took control, as Kris Joseph showed why many are really getting pumped with the way he's playing tough this year.  Joseph handles the ball much better than he did last year and is very long on defense.  Joseph's scoring has also picked up considerably, as he put up 15 points off the bench tonight.  Most importantly, the balanced scoring attack of The Cuse once again showed it's presence, as 5 Cuse players scored in double digits. 

      Furthermore, the Syracuse defense picked up and was swarming for the ball, as Arinze Onuaku and company were aggressive and rebounded much better than what we saw last against Pittsburgh.  The one thing I'm definitely looking for going forward is a little more from Brandon Triche, as I didn't notice him at all this game.  Either way, it was a great second half for SU tonight as they outscored the Tigers by 17 to add yet another solid out of conference win this year.   Go Cuse, big W!!