SAN JOSE, Calif. — Kareem Jamar cursed loudly as he walked off the court. His teammate, Will Cherry, simply shook his head when he followed a few seconds later. They walked into the locker room — the one place Syracuse could not pummel them — and away from the scoreboard that reflected the aforementioned beating.

It was only halftime.

Twenty minutes gone in a game that was already over. Twenty long minutes left to endure.

“It was ugly,” Montana head coach Wayne Tinkle said.

Thursday’s game in the second round of the NCAA Tournament was a mismatch in every sense of the word. Fourth-seeded Syracuse (27-9), fresh off a revitalizing run to the Big East tournament final, thrashed No. 13 Montana (25-7) from the opening tip inside HP Pavilion, and one half of play was more than enough time to comfortably secure a place in the Round of 32.

A 23-point halftime lead swelled, ballooned and exploded into an 81-34 Syracuse victory Thursday night before a crowd of 17,997. The overmatched Grizzlies never led, and at one point they were even outscored by Brandon Triche alone. The end result was the most lopsided victory to date in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse advances to take on 12th-seeded California, which upset No. 5 UNLV 64-61 earlier in the day.

“It was just one of those games where they couldn’t do anything right and everything fell right for us,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

The opening possession of the game forecast Syracuse’s dominance and Montana’s ineptitude, a combination that yielded a game bordering on an embarrassment. C.J. Fair, the Orange’s best and extremely left-handed player, caught the ball on the right block and calmly swooped across the lane for a runner with his dominant hand.

Fourteen seconds into the game and Montana was already in trouble. If the Grizzlies could not stop that shot — Fair’s patented play and one Syracuse ran dozens of times this season — it was going to be a long evening.

Fair scored the first six points for the Orange, which were more than enough to ensure his team held the lead for the duration of the game. Montana shot 20.4 percent from the field Thursday, including a horrific 4-for-31 from beyond the 3-point line. The lead swelled to 19 when James Southerland swished home a 3 from the left wing with 6:18 left in the half, and it reached a first-half peak of 23 when Triche dunked on a run out in transition.

“It snowballed,” Tinkle said. “And we just couldn’t do much about it.”

And when Montana finally procured an open look — a rare feat against a team that was bigger, taller, stronger and deeper — Spencer Coleman bricked a 3-pointer off the backboard with three seconds left in the half.

Plays like that were why Jamar let an epithet fly as he left the court at halftime, why Cherry simply stared at the ground in equal parts frustration and bruised pride.

So when the second half began in identical fashion, with Fair driving baseline for another easy left-handed layup, it was all over. Fair saw it slip away. The Grizzlies lost their will, and Syracuse just poured it on.

“I think once the second half started, once the first minute was gone when we scored and got a couple stops, you could tell they just knew it was over,” Fair said.

Tinkle attempted to stop the bleeding minutes later when Triche streaked down the lane for an uncontested dunk. The head coach ran 15 feet onto the court to call a timeout, which only prolonged the agony.

Triche proceeded to knock in a 3-pointer form the right wing on a beautiful transition feed from Michael Carter-Williams. It extended the scrimmage-like lead to 49-17 and meant Triche was beating the Grizzlies by himself: Brandon Triche 18, Montana 17.

So by the time Tinkle called his next timeout, this time just walking away from his team while scratching his head, the lead approached 40. The scene approached pitiful when Boeheim brought in DaJuan Coleman, his third center, midway through the second half. Syracuse was emptying its bench by bringing in a McDonald’s All-American.

“They played really well,” Tinkle said. “We didn’t play well at all. We all know the margin of victory.”

And when the final buzzer sounded, the one that ended his career and, mercifully, Thursday’s game, Cherry exited the court just as he did at halftime. He did not speak. He did not look up.

He shook his head and walked away.

Published on March 21, 2013 at 11:46 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13