RALEIGH, N.C. — Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters threw chest passes back and forth in the backcourt, watching the North Carolina State zone while trying to communicate with C.J. Fair. The Syracuse guards wanted an alley-oop, but couldn’t relay that information to Fair as the raucous crowd got louder with less than eight minutes to play.

Finally, after a series of passes, Jardine got a screen from Fair instead. He dribbled to his right, and as the Wolfpack defender attempted to go under the screen, Jardine took advantage of the opening at the top of the arc.

‘I just came off the screen, I knew I had the shot because nobody was up there,’ Jardine said. ‘And I made it.’

The senior’s 3-pointer extended Syracuse’s lead to six in what had become a back-and-forth game, and it was part of the key run for the Orange in a game of runs to earn the win. Jardine and Waiters scored all 13 of Syracuse’s points in a late run that put the Orange back ahead by double digits, and No. 1 Syracuse (11-0) commanded the final minutes of an 88-72 victory over NC State (6-4) in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,400 in the RBC Center on Saturday. In the Orange’s first game as the newly-anointed top team in the country — and its first true road game — it fought off an energized NC State team and quieted its crowd to remain undefeated. Waiters led SU with a career-high 22 points, Kris Joseph scored 21 and Jardine had 16.

Syracuse used a 23-0 run late in the first half to take a 47-33 lead into halftime, but the Wolfpack closed quickly in the second half. It took another Orange run to pull away for good by game’s end.

‘We talked at halftime they’re going to come back and they did,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.  ‘And I thought the single best thing was that when they made that comeback our players kept their poise. They were really steady, they just kept getting good shots.’

Through a flurry of outside shooting — eight first-half 3s — Syracuse pulled ahead by as many as 17 late in the first half.  A 3 by Joseph, followed by back-to-back 3s by forward James Southerland, from nearly the same spot on the right wing, forced NC State head coach Mark Gottfried to call two timeouts as a two-point lead became a 36-29 deficit for NC State within 59 seconds.

Syracuse had silenced a frenzied crowd hungry for a big upset and was playing with the swagger of a top-ranked squad.

But early in the second half, momentum shifted quickly. A 17-3 NC State run to start the half was finished by a short jumper by Wolfpack forward C.J. Williams to tie the game at 50.

The Orange led 58-56 at a media timeout with 11:22 left, and that’s when the team’s closing run began.

‘Just we do this. Basically that’s all I can say,’ Joseph said. ‘Dion Waiters hit big shots, Scoop hit two 3s, myself included I had a couple good drives to the basket, and Fab (Melo), we just made plays down the stretch.’

NC State guard Scott Wood knocked down a 3 in transition to bring the Wolfpack within 63-61 with 8:38 to play.

But off the inbounds, Jardine pushed the ball quickly up the floor. He didn’t allow NC State to get set in its zone, and whipped a pass to Waiters beyond the arc on the right side. Before Wood could close on him, Waiters launched a 3 of his own, severing sharply into the Wolfpack’s momentum.

After Jardine’s 3 put the Orange up 69-63 with 7:31 to play — SU’s largest lead in nearly 10 minutes — NC State continued to wither against the dominant guard tandem. Williams’ pass from the right wing toward the top of the arc was stolen by Waiters, and he took the turnover all the way to the rim.

‘They gave us a lot of difficulty trying to stop them,’ NC State head coach Mark Gottfried said. ‘They can score a lot of different ways, because they’re really good at getting to the basket.’

Williams got a look from 3 next time, but it clanked long off the rim to Jardine, who corralled the board and darted into transition. He pulled back, but then pulled up for 3, knocking it down over Wood. That put SU up 74-63 and the lead grew in the final minutes.

‘I came off aggressive and they gave me some open shots,’ Jardine said. ‘And I got into the lane and I got a layup to get me going and that’s what I had to do. I always have to take what the defense gives me and in the second half I was able to score.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on December 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr