Syracuse men's basketball 2013-14: Syracuse vs Cornell
Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney is congratulated by teammate B.J. Johnson and assistant coach Gerry McNamara after he was taken out of Friday's game against Cornell at the Carrier Dome. Cooney had a career-high 27 points.
(Dennis Nett | syracuse.com)
The Trevor Cooney who has been lighting up Syracuse's practices for the past two years finally showed up in a game. Just in the nick of time, too.
Cooney, a redshirt sophomore, scored a career-high 27 points to help Syracuse avoid Cornell's upset bid in the season-opener for both teams on Friday night in front of 24,788 fans at the Carrier Dome.
Trevor Cooney's shot chart was full of makes on Friday against Cornell. He was 7-for-8 from behind the arc and 10-for-12 overall from the field.
Cooney made seven out of eight shots from 3-point range to help the 8th-ranked Orange rally from a 14-point deficit in the first half and pull away for an 82-60 victory over Cornell. Cooney's two biggest shots came in the last two minutes of the first half.
His back-to-back 3-pointers trimmed Cornell's lead from 36-24 to 36-30 at halftime.
"I thought we did a good job with finding Trevor,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "He bailed us out when we really needed him. In the first half, when we had nothing, he hit those two threes to get us close at halftime. Those were two monster shots. When he gets going, he's going to make those shots.''
Syracuse played without forward Jerami Grant, who watched the game from the SU bench but wasn't in uniform. A source close to the team said Grant was serving a one-game suspension related to a violation of the NCAA's rules regarding summer league play. Boeheim, declined to elaborate on Grant's absence, but said the 6-8 sophomore would play in the Orange's next game on Tuesday against Fordham.
Cooney, a 6-foot-4 guard, redshirted his first year at Syracuse. Last year, he saw limited action behind starting guards Brandon Triche and Michael Carter-Williams. Cooney would knock down 3-pointers during the Orange's practices, but he struggled in games.
He made just 26.7 percent of his 3-point attempts.
"He's always been a good shooter,'' Boeheim said. "I think when you come off the bench and only play a few minutes, it's hard, very hard to make shots sometimes.''
Friday's game marked the first start of Cooney's career. He also logged a career-high 28 minutes. His 27 points completely eclipsed his previous career-high of 15, which he set last season against Monmouth. He went 10-for-12 from the field for the game, while also coming up with four steals and two assists.
After his career game, Cooney admitted that it was easier to play knowing that he was staying in the game even if he missed one or two shots.
"Knowing you don't have to look over your shoulder is big,'' Cooney said. "Just knowing that your responsibilities are a little bigger and just stepping up to the plate and be ready for it.''
Last year, Cooney made 18 3-pointers for the entire season. He made more than a third of last year's total in the first game of the season.
On Friday, Cooney made his first 3-point shot of the game and missed the next. After that, he would make his six in a row. The Carrier Dome crowd gave him a standing ovation when he came out of the game in the second half.
But his teammates had seen this act before.
"In practice, he is lights out,'' Syracuse senior C.J. Fair, who scored 19 points, said. "You don't see him miss two in a row.''
"Threes are nothing to him,'' added SU junior forward Rakeem Christmas.
For most of the first half, though, Cooney wasn't the hottest shooter on the floor. That would have been Cornell's Nolan Cressler.
Cressler, a 6-3 sophomore, scored 20 points in the first half for the Big Red. He went 7-for-11 from the field, including three out of six from beyond the 3-point arc, in the opening 20 minutes. His driving bucket with 4:11 left in the first half gave the Big Red a 36-22 lead.
But Cressler wouldn't score again for 20 minutes. The Syracuse defense adjusted and held the Big Red to 22 second-half points.
"We played better defense in the second half,'' Boeheim said. "That was the key to the game. We created some turnovers. We made some adjustments that made a big difference. It's just activity and being more aggressive on the defensive end.''
Syracuse opened the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 42-40 lead. The Orange took the lead on a Cooney 3-pointer with 16:53 remaining. Another Cooney 3-pointer with 12:54 left in the game gave Syracuse a 55-45 lead.
The Big Red's bid to beat Syracuse for the first time since the 1968-69 season was over.
"Trevor saved us in the first half when we had really very little going,'' Boeheim said. "He got us back in touch and in the second half, our defense was just better.''
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