Orange Knocks Off TCU, 80-64

Saturday, December 3

Carrier Dome

7:00 p.m.

Syracuse University

Texas Christian

Junior Demetris Nichols registered a career-high six three pointers and finished with 24 points against the Horned Frogs.

12/3/2005 9:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score
SU Player Quotes

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse junior forward Demetris Nichols tied his career-high with 24 points, including a career-high six three pointers, while freshman guard Eric Devendorf recorded a personal-best 19 points as the Orange knocked off Texas Christian, 80-64, in front of 20,969 at the Carrier Dome. SU improved its season record to 6-2, while the Horned Frogs dropped to 1-5.

Nichols had the hot hand in the first half, scoring more than half the Orange's points (21). He canned six three-pointers on 6-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. His back-to-back three's with less than six minutes remaining in the first half gave SU a 30-16 lead. The Orange went ahead by as many as 17 points (40-23) when senior guard Gerry McNamara threw a pass up ahead to sophomore guard Josh Wright with 1:25 remaining. At halftime, SU was on top, 40-25.

Devendorf caught fire in the second half, scoring 12 of SU's first 18 points, including three treys to open the game up to its largest margin of the night, 58-38, with 12:06 left to play.

TCU would never get closer than 12 points the rest of the way. Nile Murry tallied three of his game-high 25 points off a baseline three-pointer which pulled the Horned Frogs to within 12 points (60-48) at the 10:01 mark. Brent Hackett hit a pullup jumper with 6:52 remaining to cut the Orange lead to 69-57.

Murry scored his 25 points off a 5-for-8 performance from beyond the three-point line. Judson Stubbs finished the game with 12 points and eight rebounds.

McNamara finished the contest with 11 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. He moved into eighth place ahead of Dale Shackleford on SU's all-time steals list. His 209 career steals are six behind Lawrence Moten in seventh place (215).

Nichols registered another career-high with four blocks. Junior forward Terrence Roberts contributed to the win with eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Syracuse has a week off until its next game against Colgate, at home on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m.