Syracuse (3-0) opened Hoophall Miami Invitational play with an 80-67 dispatching of Texas Southern (0-4) on Saturday night in the Carrier Dome. After a back-and-forth first half — no team led by more than eight — the Orange opened up the game in the second half after Tyus Battle returned. He sat out the last nine minutes of the first half with two fouls. Battle’s 16 second-half points and dunking theatrics helped Syracuse blow open an eight-point halftime lead.

Here are superlatives from the game:

The Big Moment: Tyus Battle’s tomahawk jam

Midway through the first half, Battle caught a pass in the far corner, faked left toward the middle, then spun back toward the baseline. He put Texas Southern’s Donte Clark on skates and blew by him to attack the basket. When he rose up from the baseline, the Tigers 7-foot-2 center Trayvon Reed ducked, turned upcourt and vacated the premises. Battle’s tomahawk dunk charged 16,000 previously listless fans to life and the end result seemed locked.

Stud: Geno Thorpe

All fall, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim has said that Thorpe hasn’t been playing up to his potential because of a lingering right-ankle injury. It looked as though the grad transfer from South Florida found his footing on Saturday. He hit 3s, and-1s and facilitated an offense that stagnated in the first half. He played active defense atop the 2-3 zone when foul trouble limited Battle.

It was the exact reason Syracuse’s assistant coach Allen Griffin called Thorpe in the first place. Yes, Battle displaced Thorpe to start the second half and had nine points in an 11-0 run, but Thorpe enabled the Orange to sit Battle with two fouls for that long stretch in the first and still handle business against the Tigers.

Dud: Oshae Brissett

Early in the first half, Syracuse’s freshman attacked the basket from the right side and challenged Texas Southern’s 7-foot-2 Reed. Brissett absorbed the contact and controlled his body the entire way but his shot was a brick off the backboard that seemed not to catch any iron. It ended up on the other side of the court and in the Tigers hands.

That play epitomized the forward’s night. He was long enough to deflect passes on defense and grab 10 rebounds, but the finer points of his game appeared unpolished. He missed all five of his first-half attempts and finished 2-of-12 on the night. In the second half, a quick turnover in the high post and bobbling a rebound on the other end earned a quick hook from Boeheim. Brissett still played plenty after that, a function of Syracuse’s roster as much as anything, but it provided the freshman time to pull through his tough shooting night.

Highlight: We playing winners?

From a Marek Dolezaj layup with 48 seconds to go in the first half to a Frank Howard layup with more than five minutes gone in the second half, the Orange turned a 37-30 lead into a 53-30 lead. The 18-0 run fully separated Syracuse from Texas Southern and was keyed by Battle, who had nine of those points.  The run included Battle’s highlight dunk and an alley-oop from Frank Howard to Paschal Chukwu, a close runner-up for “The Big Moment.”

Lowlight: Rough start

Brissett’s deep jump shot ricocheted high off the glass and then a scrum ensued underneath. The crowd, standing and clapping as they do when awaiting the Orange’s first points of the half, clapped unevenly, sensing they were close to getting what they wanted. But they weren’t. Matthew Moyer collected a rebound and kicked it to Battle, who missed a jump shot. Moyer grabbed another offensive rebound and then missed a jumper himself. Brissett rebounded and missed one of his own and then he was fouled. He walked to the line and Syracuse assistant coach Gerry McNamara shook his head. He looked from the Carrier Dome floor to the rafters.

Published on November 18, 2017 at 9:08 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR