Trevor Cooney’s 25 points lead Syracuse in 83-55 romp of Wake Forest
Daily Orange File Photo
Trevor Cooney hit 6-of-11 of his 3-point shots and 7-of-14 from the floor on his way to scoring 25 points. Syracuse crushed Wake Forest, 83-55.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Trevor Cooney knew it was coming.
He sunk a contested 3-pointer from the wing 27 seconds into the game. Then another from the same spot 28 seconds later. And with less than four minutes gone, Cooney had all 11 of Syracuse’s points.
Finally, what he thought was inevitable happened. He missed.
“I didn’t try to do anything out of the ordinary,” Cooney said. “I just tried to play my game.”
Even if it wasn’t by design, Cooney’s first 10 minutes were anything but ordinary. He’s capable of stringing together deep balls – Jim Boeheim let it be known that those outside Syracuse may miss that point – and he singlehandedly blazed ahead of Wake Forest for a lead that wouldn’t dissipate.
Cooney erupted for 19 of his 25 points before the midway point of the first half, and gave SU (12-7, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) enough cushion to cruise to an 83-55 win over the Demon Deacons (10-7, 1-4) despite only making two shots in the final 30 minutes.
“When we make shots early like that, it changes the complexion of the game,” Boeheim said. “We’re just a different team when that happens.”
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For the latter part of the first half, Cooney often began possessions isolated in the corner beyond the 3-point line with his defender close to the near low block. He’d curl up to the wing or trot along the baseline before a quick spurt, but the same openings were gone.
Four different players guarded Cooney after his scorching start, and Demon Deacons head coach Danny Manning cycled in reserves to ease the bleeding. Cooney was held to just two points on free throws the remainder of the half, which came when a near-highlight reel breakaway dunk clanked off the back rim as he was fouled.
He went almost 21 minutes between both halves without a basket, but it didn’t matter. More than half of Michael Gbinije’s points came on dunks. Tyler Roberson seemingly bought real estate down low, going off for 10 points in the paint. Even backup point guard Frank Howard created in the lane one game after Boeheim was unimpressed by the freshman.
Wake Forest’s defensive focus shifted to Cooney and he was rendered ineffective, but the fruits of his labor were paying dividends elsewhere.
“That opened up stuff for me, Roberson, Frank got into the lane a couple times,” Gbinije said. “When Trev’s going and we got everybody on board it just opens up things for everybody.”
As Gbinije soared toward the rim for his third tomahawk dunk, fans streamed toward the exits. There were over eight minutes left and Syracuse’s lead had grown to 32. Backup center Chinonso Obokoh stood at the opposite foul line elevating his arms to incite the pro-Syracuse crowd.
Cooney got his three or four best looks from the field in the second half, Boeheim said, but missed each. A Syracuse team normally debilitated by rebounding deficiencies was down both centers due to foul trouble, and yet that didn’t drag the Orange down.
Cooney matched his season-high field-goal percentage and made the most 3-pointers he has all season. He paired Saturday’s outburst with his hot streak against North Carolina as “by far” his best games of the season. In both games, each coming in the last week, he made more than four 3-pointers. That hadn’t happened once in the previous 16 games.
“When I’m able to get into a rhythm early, it kind of carries me through,” Cooney said.
And with the Cooney navigating Syracuse over Wake Forest, it carries them through to Duke on back-to-back ACC wins.
A week ago, Cooney scored a season-best 27 points but the Orange fell to the depths of the conference at 0-4. Just seven days later, once again on the back of an early shooting expo from the senior, the script of Syracuse’s season is headed in a different direction.
Published on January 16, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman
