St. John's embarrasses Syracuse with 93-60 rout at the Carrier Dome

St. John's handed Syracuse its worst loss in the 36-year history of the Carrier Dome, after the Red Storm overpowered the Orangemen (excuuuse me, the Orange) 93-60 on the famed court.

Wednesday night's 33-point win marked the second largest victory by St. John's over Syracuse and was the first time that a Jim Boeheim-coached team has lost five non-conference games in the regular season.

Syracuse fans even booed their beloved Orange off the court before it was all over after Boeheim waved the white flag and emptied his bench with almost three minutes to go.

Three St. John’s players scored in double figures, the Red Storm scored 32 points on 19 Syracuse turnovers and outscored the Orange 36-12 from beyond the arc in overwhelming their former Big East rivals. But not before the game turned into lob city for the Storm.

It was lob city in the Carrier Dome tonight! Full highlights on the St. John's Red Storm YouTube page! #SJUBB #WeAreNewYorksTeam pic.twitter.com/R4sOJEFMDi

— St. John's BBall (@StJohnsBBall) December 22, 2016

“I didn’t get them ready to do what they needed to do. We just didn’t execute on defense or offense. St. John’s did. That was the game,” Boeheim said. “This is on me, not the players.”

Syracuse’s previous worst loss at the Dome was by 24 points against Seton Hall in 1998.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak and was the third straight for St. John’s (6-7) over Syracuse (7-5) in three years.

St. John’s coach Chris Mullin was at a loss to explain his team’s dominating performance.

“I really can’t explain it, especially with the game we’re coming off (a 92-76 loss against Penn State). We’ve been up and down. The one thing about our team is that we’re young, we’re inexperienced,” said Mullin. “When you get effort and energy and share the ball, and do the right things, at some point things will work.”

The game was tied at 14 with 12:17 to go in the first half. From that point on, the Red Storm outscored Syracuse 79-46 — 54-31 in the second half. Syracuse climbed to within six early in the second half on six straight points from Dajuan Coleman, but St. John’s answered with six and ran away after that.

Shamorie Ponds led St. John’s with 21 points. Bashir Ahmed added 20 points and Malik Ellison 16.

Ellison scored eight straight points on two 3-pointers and put-back to tie the game at 12. The game was tied at 14 when the Red Storm went on a 19-4 run to take a 33-18 lead. The Red Storm hit four consecutive 3-pointers in a span of 1:36 during the run. St. John’s held a 39-29 halftime lead.

Syracuse's Otto the Orange banned from ACC mascot game: Report

The Syracuse suspensions levied at Jim Boeheim by the NCAA last week didn't end with players and coaches. The punishment even included Otto the Orange, the team mascot:

The Atlantic Coast Conference held its annual mascot basketball game at halftime of the North Carolina-Louisville quarterfinal Thursday. Fourteen of the ACC’s 15 mascots played — from Mr. Wuf of NC State to Rameses of North Carolina to Sebastian the Ibis of Miami.

But no Otto.

College Basketball: Otto the Orange squeezed out of ACC mascot game, banned like team http://t.co/a1a5kuBaYP http://t.co/KbU6kwto1M
— PlayerPress (@playerpress) March 13, 2015

While a Syracuse banner still hangs next to banners for each school at the conference tournament, the ubiquitous orange fur ball is nowhere to be seen inside the Greensboro Coliseum.

Syracuse said back in February that it would keep itself out of this postseason in response to a lengthy NCAA investigation. The probe found the program committed academic violations, ignored drug test procedures and accepted payment for volunteer work at a YMCA.

But the Orange’s 'S' logo still appears on the tournament’s official souvenir T-shirts, along with the insignias of all the other schools.

Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) pulling for Michigan, get it?

As Michigan gears up for Saturday's Final Four match against Syracuse, members of the legendary Fab Five have been popping up and about showing support for their old school. Now a member of another group of superheroes is publicly rooting for this pack of five to take home the NCAA title this year.

Hugh Jackman — the Hollywood star who plays the Marvel Comics character Wolverine in the X-Men film series — tweeted his support for his favorite team, who else? — the Michigan Wolverines.

This is Wolverine saying "c'mon univ. of mich wolverines!!! This is your year. Trey...crush it BUB! #thewolverine#FinalFour @umichbball
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) April 5, 2013

Jackman plays the clawed mutant Wolverine — also known as Logan — in the highly successful series of six X-Men-based movies including one, "The Wolverine," which is coincidentally being released this summer.

The fan favorite Wolverine is mostly known for his long metal talons and fast healing abilities, but it is his "beserker rage" — now known as Mike Rice Syndrome — that thrills the audience.

Michigan guard Trey Burke will be leading the Michigan pack. He may not have 18-inch claws but he knows how to slash through defenses and toss up the trey. Now that he has picked up virtually every player of the year award, a good Marvel Comics name for Burke could be The Sweeper.

Just watch those timeout calls Wolverines or Jackman might be tweeting about Les Miserables next week.

CJ Fair's nullified slam dunk is still resounding

James Southerland made his first appearance for Syracuse in seven games and led the No. 9 Orange to a 77-58 victory over heavy-hearted St. John's in the Carrier Dome.

The Orange pretty much had their way with the Red Storm throughout the game, but it was C.J. Fair's thunderous one-handed slam dunk right before the half that got the home crowd on its feet.  Too bad Fair's soaring basket over the Johnnies' Sir' Dominic Pointer was nullified by a charging foul.

Even though the resounding slam wasn't worth 2 points, it's still worth a second look.



The win gave Syracuse (20-3, 8-2 Big East) coach Jim Boeheim his 35th season with 20 wins or more. He holds the NCAA record in that category.

St. John's (15-9, 7-5) was without their head coach Steve Lavin — who missed the game due to the overnight death of his father, Cap, leaving Rico Hines in charge.

Fair finished with 17 points and nine rebounds.

Dion Waiters' Breakaway Dunk Brings Down Madison Square Garden House

Syracuse's Dion Waiters' tremendous open court breakaway dunk was the exclamation point on a 95-70 rout of St. John's at Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon.

Waiters followed up one crowd-pleasing Orange dunk after another by stuffing the ball through the rim with his right hand over his head while the St. John's defenders could only watch and admire.

The sophomore guard then glared at the roaring crowd of 19,979 before heading back on defense as his teammates rejoiced.

The Red Storm were manhandled all afternoon on their supposed home court.  The Garden stands seemed to have been flooded by orange and anyone in red seemed shell shocked during the Syracuse onslaught.

 After Waiters powerful slam gave 'Cuse a 70-46 lead, cheers of "Let's Go Orange" filled the arena with 9:16 left in the game.

Second-ranked Syracuse (23-1, 10-1) was just too physical for the younger,  undermanned and smaller St. John's (10-13, 4-7) team.

The win gave Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim his 879th win tying him with Dean Smith on the all-time victories list.

The Red Storm got off to a 5-0 lead and hung tough with the much bigger Orangemen but couldn't keep up with the deeper and taller visitors.

Syracuse took control of the game with about eight minutes to go and lead by as much as 59-31 after a dunk by seven-footer Fab Melo with 13 minutes remaining in the Big East match-up.

Melo—back from a three-game academic suspension— finished the game with a career high 14 points.

The home-town Johnnies fans are probably saying " 'Cuse me Waiters, there seems to be some fly in my hoop."