Rautins and Jackson Too Much for Friars

Exactly one year after the Men’s Basketball Team knocked off then-No. 1 Pittsburgh, the Friars once again seemed ripe for the upset against a top-five opponent. However, futile defense and stagnant second half offense allowed the Syracuse Orange to race past Providence 99-85, crushing any hopes of a court-storming repeat.

Right from the opening tip, the Orange looked to expose mismatches inside and dumped the ball down low to the two-headed monster of Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson who seemed to finish nearly every possession with either a dunk or a jump-hook. The two combined for 13 points over the first 4:21 of action, helping ’Cuse jump out to a 20-11 lead.

"We knew going into the game that we could score down low," said Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim. "[Rick Jackson] was just fantastic the whole game."

After falling behind by as many as 13, the Friars started to mount a comeback that was fueled by unconscionably hot shooting. PC knocked down 10 of its next 11 attempts from the field and capped off a 31-13 run when Sharaud Curry ’10 found a streaking Jamine Peterson ’12 for a thunderous alley-oop slam. Helping to spark the run was Brian McKenzie ’10, Peterson and Marshon Brooks ’11 all of whom knocked down threes during the Providence scoring spurt.

"Providence is one of the tougher offenses that we have to play," said Boeheim. "I’ve never been so disappointed at a defensive effort than I was during the first half."

Clinging to a five-point half time lead, Providence came out extremely flat to start the final 20 minutes of play. After Peterson connected on a three to open that half, the Friars were outscored 26-2 over a nine-minute stretch which seemingly put the game out of reach. Not only was Syracuse able to do whatever they pleased on offense, but the once mighty PC offense looked confused at times. After doing a great job in the first half of feeding the ball to Ray Hall ’10 and Bilal Dixon ’13 to get the Syracuse 2-3 zone to collapse, PC seemed to forget about getting the big men touches at the high post.

"We don’t see too much zone so it was a tough match-up for us tonight," said Providence Head Coach Keno Davis. "I think at times we may have turned the ball over because we panicked a little, but that will happen with a young team."

A Dixon layup closed the gap to 11 with 7:54 remaining, but the Orange’s senior leader Andy Rautins, who had an answer for every Providence run, nailed all eight of his three-balls for the game, pushing the Syracuse lead back up to 82-68.

"When you have a guy like [Rautins] and strength down low it’s tough to stop both," said Davis. "They did a great job using their strengths to their advantage."

Failing to string together defensive stops, PC once again surrendered 90+ points, falling by a final score of 99-85. Leading the way for Providence was Peterson and Brooks who each tallied 23 points, followed by Vincent Council ’13 and Curry who both chipped in with 11. For the visitors, Jackson scored a career-high 28 points to go along with nine rebounds, while Rautins missed his career-high scoring mark by one point, finishing with 28 points on 8-12 shooting from long distance.

The loss was the Friars’ seventh straight and ninth in the last 10 games, dropping them to 4-11 in Big East play and 12-15 overall.

"You have to be able to play at a high level for the entire game," said Davis. "Right now we’re not deep enough to sustain that sort of high level for an entire game."

The Friars return to action on Saturday, Feb. 27, when the travel to South Florida, hoping to avenge an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Bulls on Jan. 23 at the Dunk. With potential Big East player of the year Dominique Jones, and the return of big man Augustus Gilchrist, the Bulls will once again be no easy task for a Friars team that’s in dire need of a break.