Wesley Johnson Leads Cuse Over Fighting Irish

   The No.5 Syracuse Orange improved to 18-1 on the year and 5-1 in Big East play as they beat a pesky Notre Dame Fighting Irish(14-5) team 84 to 71 in South Bend, Indiana.  Syracuse completed a very impressive three game Big East road trip, as they beat the likes of Rutgers, West Virginia, and now Notre Dame.  Syracuse was tested in each of the games, although not as much in the Rutgers showing, and needed to overcome the offensive runs and turnover woes that had really hurt their road play in previous years.  However, against Notre Dame tonight, Syracuse shot lights out and showed no signs of letting off the pedal, as Andy Rautins hit 4 three's in the first 10 minutes of the game....u kidding me?  Rautins ended up with 21 points on 5 of 9 shooting from deep, but also turned the ball over a bit more than usual, as he turned it over 5 times during the game.   
      This game was much closer than the end score would indicate, as Notre Dame Forward Luke Harangody beasted his way to his usual huge day against the Orange with 31 points on 13 of 26 from the field.  Harangody physically stuck with the Orange big men, but didn't have the help from the other Fighting Irish big men to keep the Orange off the offensive boards.  The Syracuse height and length on the defensive end completely disrupted the normally solid Notre Dame shooting attack, as the Fighting Irish shot a mere 38% from the field and just 26% from downtown as a team.  However, Forward Tim Abromaitis did put up 26 points and was shooting darts from 3, as he shot 5 of 11 from long range.  Nonetheless, Abromaitis was the Batman with no Robin tonight, as nobody else on the Irish was shooting well from 3 tonight.

       What more can you say about Wesley Johnson?  He's a Junior transfer from Iowa State that now leads the Orange in scoring, is the team emotional leader, and by the way, is a lock for being first team all Big East.  He had the flu the night before the SU v. West Virginia game Saturday, and now lead the Orange in to South Bend to score 22 points and didn't come out of the game at all.  Johnson has somewhat  overshadowed the beloved Jonny Flynn, as he's convinced the Orange faithful that this team has what it takes to make a deep run in March.  You have to love his attitude on the floor, and like Flynn, really looks likes he's having fun out there.  It's definitely feeding over to the rest of the guys, as Kris Joseph, Arinze Onuaku, Andy Rautins, and Scoop Jardine are also playing very well.  Greatly looking forward to the matchup Saturday at the Dome against a solid Marquette team.