Oakland (6-6), a Summit League team from the Detroit suburbs had been battle tested, with two of its losses coming to nationally-ranked foes like no. 1 Kansas and Michigan State.
In the last non-conference game before Big East play got started, SU conquered Oakland for the second consecutive year 92-60, and freshman point guard Brandon Triche had a lot to do with it.
Triche was nearly perfect from the field, making nine of the 10 shots he took. He posted his career-best performance of 27 points, adding four assists, and four rebounds in just 27 minutes of court time.
In addition, Triche was a perfect six-for-six from the 3-point arc, a school record. The previous record for most consecutive threes was five, held jointly by Carmelo Anthony, Todd Burgun, and Greg Monroe. And had coach Jim Boeheim not pulled Triche out of the contest with 10:57 left, the numbers might have been more gaudy.
Nevertheless, Syracuse remained undefeated at 12-0, for reasons that went beyond Triche’s career effort.
Wesley Johnson contributed with his 6th double-double posting 19 points, 11 rebounds in 31 minutes of playing time. Johnson continues to prove that he is multi-faceted, with a commitment to defense, often gathering loose rebounds or blocking shots at the critical stages of the game.
Credit should be also given to Rick Jackson who played an extended role covering for the injured Arinze Onuaku. who played only five minutes on this night. Jackson delivered yet another strong outing, with 14 points and five rebounds.
Mookie Jones gave the Orange productive minutes leading all scorers off the bench with 13 points. Kris Joseph finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
Oakland scored the first basket, but SU stormed back with 10 unanswered points. The opportunistic Orange took control of the mismatch with the Golden Grizzlies in size, and Jackson scored six early points.
For a brief moment, Oakland’s Drew Maynard ignited his team, drilling a 3-pointer and field goal to slash SU’S lead to 16-13.
However, SU answered with a 17-4 run. with 4:23 remaining. Triche, who usually drives to basket with his powerful frame, instead pulled up and hit three 3-pointers.
“I was able to shoot, but I didn’t really shoot that much in high school,” Triche said. “If I missed the first two shots, I just chose to drive because it was easier to get to the basket. I was much stronger than everybody. But in practice, I shot pretty good. Once I knocked the first two down, my confidence went way high.”
The sum of the two players – Triche (13 points), combined with Johnson (14 points) - gave the Orange a comfortable 43-28 lead at intermission.
In the second half, Syracuse pounded Oakland into submission running them off the court with 10 fast-break scores. Reminiscent of his high school days when he captured back-to-back state Class A championships at Jamesville-DeWitt, the red-hot Triche continued his assault drilling his sixth 3-pointer in-a-row.
Amid all his brilliance on offense was a highlighted spectacular play on defense. Triche stole the ball and made a behind-the-back pass to fellow J-D alum Andy Rautins, who scored his only two points of the game.
Overall, SU shot well from the floor at 54 percent, and dished out a total of 24 assists. The Orange’s 2/3 zone defense hindered the Grizzlies during the entire game, as they shot 37.1 percent from the field and a dismal two-for-22 from 3-point range.
