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Syracuse University
St. John's University
#1 Orange Claims BIG EAST Title
3/2/2010 9:13:32 PM | Men's Basketball
Syracuse 85, St. John's 66
Coach Boeheim Quotes
Student-Athlete Quotes
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – #1/1 Syracuse claimed the BIG EAST regular-season championship outright with an 85-66 win against St. John's on Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome. Senior co-captains Arinze Onuaku and Andy Rautins were honored in a pre-game senior day ceremony before their last home game.
Onuaku was the offensive leader, tallying a game-high 21 points on 10-of-13 from the floor while collecting eight rebounds and blocking a pair of shots. His 21 points represented a season-high effort.
Rautins was second on the team, pairing14 points with a team-high seven assists while Wes Johnson and Kris Joseph added 13 points each. Redshirt sophomore Scoop Jardine rounded out the double-digit scorers, notching 10 points with three assists and a pair of steals.
The teams exchanged the lead twice through the first six minutes, before the Orange used a 9-2 run to take a 20-13 lead with 11:35 left in the first half. Rautins sparked the lead with his second trifecta of the game and contributed five points in the run while Johnson scored the other four.
St. John's made it a one-possession game, 23-20, with 8:29 remaining in the opening stanza, but SU pulled away again, outscoring the Red Storm, 15-4, through the next four minutes. Jardine had six points in the stretch while Joseph added four. The spurt gave the Orange a 38-24 edge with 4:06 left in the first half.
Syracuse maintained its buffer for the remainder of the half to head into the locker room with a 42-28 edge.
The two teams traded scores through the majority of the second half, with the Orange controlling the tempo – holding a 22-4 advantage in fast break points in the game – to keep St. John's at bay.
Ahead, 64-48, Onuaku scored eight points on four-consecutive possessions giving SU a 72-54 advantage with 7:37 left to play.
The Orange sealed the BIG EAST regular-season title, outscoring the Red Storm, 12-7 through the final six minutes to produce the final, 85-66.
It's the second outright BIG EAST Conference regular-season crown for the Orange. Syracuse also won the league crown in 1990-91.SU shared the conference crown in 1979-80, 1985-86, 1986-87, 1989-90, 1997-98, 1999-00, and 2002-03.
Tonight's outing marked the first time in program history that the Orange played a March game ranked first in the national polls.
Syracuse wraps up its regular-season schedule at Louisville on Saturday, March 6 at 2 p.m. before heading to Madison Square Garden as the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Championship.
