Scoop Jardine remembers nights like this back at Neumann-Goretti High School in Philadelphia. The 15-rebound, nine-block nights from a dominant Rick Jackson who toyed with his opponents on the glass.

 

Tuesday was a flashback to those nights. On a night when Jardine carried the team on his back in the second half and scored 27 points, it was his longtime teammate Jackson who Jardine said was most responsible for leading Syracuse to a 66-55 victory over Detroit in the Carrier Dome.

 

‘Rick is the reason we won the game, if you ask me,’ Jardine said. ‘His commitment, taking what the defense gave him and making the right play every time down the court.’

 

For Jackson, the flashback game came in the form of a dominant night on the glass. Playing all 40 minutes in SU’s victory, Jackson scored 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field. And on many of those misses, along with the misses from other Syracuse players, Jackson cleaned up. He had an eye-popping 22 rebounds — 14 defensive and eight offensive.

 

On a night when the Orange held a slim advantage on the boards at 46-42, Jackson was the single reason for that advantage. The 22 rebounds were a career-high for Jackson, one game after he set a career-high with 13 rebounds against Canisius.

 

‘Rick is the one I really tip my hat to,’ SU small forward Kris Joseph said. ‘Twenty-two rebounds. That was the key for us tonight.’

 

Though most of the Orange struggled getting to the boards and boxing out in SU head coach Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone, Jackson was the mark of consistency.

The rebounding woes were evident with James Southerland, who was playing the bottom of the zone for a foul-troubled Kris Joseph late in the first half. With the Orange struggling out of the gates once again, Southerland failed to box out Detroit’s Eli Holman on Jason Calliste’s missed 3-point attempt.

 

Holman scooped up the rebound and put in a layup, giving the Titans a 22-18 lead with just more than five minutes to play in the first half. As Southerland’s mistakes piled up, Boeheim could only shout one thing to him from the sideline.

 

‘What,’ Boeheim said, ‘are you doing?’

 

Despite Jackson’s 12 rebounds at the half, Detroit held a 25-23 advantage in that category over the Orange. And it contributed to a three-point deficit at the half.

 

But one key stretch to open the second half symbolized Jackson’s importance in Syracuse’s win. On Detroit’s first possession, Jackson grabbed the board off Ray McCallum’s miss from beyond the arc. He started a fastbreak to Brandon Triche, who found Jardine for a quick 3-pointer to tie the game at 28-28.

On Detroit’s next possession, Jackson turned and looked quickly after Chase Simon’s missed jumper. He found a streaking Jardine, who laid the ball in for SU’s first lead since the 12:29 mark in the first half.

 

‘He just kept rebounding and went after every rebound,’ Boeheim said. ‘I talked to Ricky before the season. I think the one thing he can really do to impress people is to rebound the ball. Detroit’s a pretty big, pretty good rebounding team.’

 

And on offense, Jackson used the get-to-the-glass mentality when Detroit’s defense keyed on him in its own 2-3 zone. The Titans’ defenders made it difficult to get him the ball, and when the Orange did, they closed on him in the post.

 

So he crashed the boards on SU’s missed shots. There were plenty, with Syracuse shooting 36.4 percent for the game and 21.9 percent in the first half.

‘My mindset was just to get on the backboards,’ Jackson said. ‘If I can’t score, that has nothing to do with my rebounding.’

 

And even in nights of dominance at Neumann-Goretti, Jardine had never seen Jackson play like this before. Forty minutes. Twenty-two rebounds. And the game-changer. It’s the new kind of domination that Jardine said will need to continue for the Orange to be successful.

 

‘I’ve never seen Rick get to the glass like he did today,’ Jardine said. ‘And that’s the same thing he’s going to have to do from now on.’

 

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on November 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm