Dion Waiters sees the positives of Syracuse’s win over Cornell Tuesday. A quick start. Stingy defense. Good transition offense.

‘I thought we finally came out and jumped on a fast start,’ Waiters said.

Jim Boeheim, though, sees mostly the negatives. To the SU head coach, it was another tale of two halves. He sees 20 turnovers. He sees his veterans struggling. And he sees a team that is still not where it needs to be at either end of the floor.

‘We have to be better than that,’ Boeheim said. ‘We have a lot of work ahead of us. A lot of work ahead of us.’

It was just another Jekyll-and-Hyde game for No. 8 Syracuse (7-0) in a 78-58 victory over Cornell (2-5) Tuesday in front of 20,548 inside the Carrier Dome. The latest in a trend that has come to symbolize this season’s version of the Orange.

The first half was marked by a distinct 27-9 rebounding advantage for the Orange that led to breakouts in transition and easy baskets. To Boeheim, though, the second half was the antithesis. Turnovers, shoddy defense and an overall lack of crisp play.

‘The second half, we thought the game was over,’ Boeheim said.

Active in Boeheim’s 2-3 zone on defense, SU was able to force turnovers and poor shot selection from the Big Red in the first half. That led to a fast-paced fury up the court in transition, often bringing quick baskets and easy opportunities on the break.

It started right off the bat on the defensive end, where the Orange didn’t allow any simple chances for the Big Red. After an alley-oop to start the game,

Cornell didn’t register another field goal for more than five minutes.

‘Once we get started, that’s our bread and butter,’ SU forward Kris Joseph said. ‘If we execute our defense, it’s going to lead to transition offense.’

And that high-octane transition offense often followed defensive stands. The theme developed in the opening minutes of the game and would continue throughout the first half.

Late in the first, Rick Jackson hauled in a rebound off a missed 3-pointer from Cornell’s Chris Wroblewski. Quick outlet to Waiters, who brought it up the court. Streaking down the left side was Joseph, who Waiters found underneath.

And Joseph finished the job, laying the ball in on reverse to give Syracuse a 23-point lead late in the first half.

‘We have good guards who can run,’ Waiters said. ‘Once we start running, a lot of teams, they’re in trouble.’

Cornell was in trouble. The Big Red shot an abysmal 24 percent — including 8.3 percent from beyond the arc — from the field in the first half, while Syracuse shot 48.4 percent.

But that same pace and intensity didn’t quite carry over into the second half. Sloppy play ensued: seven assists to 12 turnovers, compared with 12 assists to eight turnovers in the first.

The culprits: Boeheim’s professed ‘four best ball-handlers’ of Joseph, Waiters, Brandon Triche and Scoop Jardine. The foursome accounted for 16 of the Orange’s 20 turnovers on the night.

‘I think we’re all trying to make the home-run play,’ Jardine said. ‘We just have to clean it up.’

Missed shots were also frequent, mostly from beyond the arc. The Orange shot just 2-of-11 from 3-point range in the second half.

And Syracuse lacked the same crisp 2-3 zone it had in the first. After only allowing 17 points in the first half, SU gave up 41 to the Big Red in the second.

‘Very disappointed in the second half after a pretty solid first half,’ Boeheim said. ‘We just can’t seem to put consistent efforts together on the offensive or defensive end.’

All of those factors allowed Cornell to slowly creep back from its 21-point halftime deficit. But SU already had the game well enough in hand. Cornell never got closer than 11.

Still, despite the constant double-digit leads in games this season, it was easy for Boeheim to see the recurring flaws. And after the game, he saw last weekend’s tough competition — Georgia Tech — getting blown out in an eventual 20-point loss to Northwestern.

With the weaknesses he currently sees in his team, he hopes SU isn’t headed for a similar fate soon.

‘We’re just not a good basketball team,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’ve got to somehow get better. We’re a long way from where we need to be at this stage of the year.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on November 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm