#4/5 Orange Sell Out
11/26/2004 3:11:47 PM | Men's Basketball
SYRACUSE, NY -- The #4/5 Syracuse Orange (4-0) are expected to play in front of a sold-out Pepsi Arena on Saturday, November 27, when SU plays Siena (4-0) in Albany, N.Y. The game is a homecoming of sorts for Syracuse senior center Craig Forth who is native of nearby East Greenbush, N.Y., and prepped at Columbia High School.
Syracuse hopes to extend the modest four-game winning streak its forged to open the 2004-05 campaign while Siena wants to avoid the first 0-5 start of program history.
Syracuse's four wins came in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. SU claimed the tournament title with back-to-back victories over ranked foes in New York's Madison Square Garden last week. SU defeated #12/14 Mississippi State in the semifinals, 71-58, and then won against #24/23 Memphis in the championship game, 77-62.
Senior forward Hakim Warrick, a candidate for the Naismith, Rupp and Wooden national player of the year awards, won Coaches vs. Cancer Classic MVP honors. He tallied a season-best 25 points in the title game against the Tigers. He enters the Siena tilt average 21.3 poitns and 7.5 rebounds an outing.
Forth has started all 106 games of his SU career. He is averaging 6.0 points and 5.3 boards per contest. Forth and the Orange played in the Pepsi Arena during 2001-02, his freshman campaign, against Albany. In 2002-03, SU stopped by the Pepsi Arena for NCAA Tournament conquests of Auburn and Oklahoma in front of a partisan crowd.
