Syracuse starts year off right by rallying past Cornell
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Syracuse, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - While his teammates came out flat, Trevor Cooney came out blazing hot.
Then his friends joined the party in the second half.
Cooney was 7-of-8 from beyond the arc and scored a game-best 27 points as No. 8 Syracuse downed Cornell, 82-60, in the season opener for both teams on Friday night.
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"I got the first couple to go in and the game kind of flowed from there," Cooney said.
Trailing by six at the break, the Orange outscored the Big Red 50-22 over the final 20 minutes. Syracuse shot 63 percent and was 5-of-7 from long distance in the second half.
Cooney, starting in place of graduated four-year starter Brandon Triche, finished 10-of-12 from the field for the Orange (1-0), who are playing their first season in the ACC. C.J. Fair poured in 19 points, but had seven turnovers in the triumph.
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"He bailed us out when we really needed him in the first half, when we really had nothing," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said of Cooney.
Syracuse returns three starters from a team that went 30-10 and made the Final Four last year. Freshman Tyler Ennis, who dished out seven assists but scored just one point on an 0-for-6 effort, is taking over at point guard in place of Michael Carter-Williams.
Nolan Cressler had 20 points in the first half, but just three the rest of the way for Cornell (0-1), which has dropped 34 straight tilts against the Orange.
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Cooney nailed a pull-up trey from the left wing in transition to cap a 10-2 Syracuse run to start the second half and give the Orange their first lead, 42-40, since it was 2-0 in the early going.
A 20-3 surge a bit later put the game away. Cooney hit a pair of 3-pointers and netted 10 points during the swing, which the sharpshooter finished off with a jumper for a 64-48 margin midway through the second half.
Syracuse cruised until the final buzzer.
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Cressler had 20 points in the first 15-plus minutes as Cornell raced out to a 36-22 advantage.
"We came out really lazy," Cooney said.
Cooney then hit two triples during a 10-2 spurt that whittled the gap to 38-32 heading into the break.
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Game Notes
Syracuse finished 10-of-20 from beyond the arc ... The Orange outrebounded the Big Red, 38-26 ... Cornell hasn't beaten Syracuse since Dec. 4, 1968 ... Rakeem Christmas had 12 points for the Orange.