For the first seven-and-a-half minutes of Thursday night’s season opener against Northern Colorado, the Syracuse men’s basketball team played a nearly perfect game.

The Orange pulled out all the stops that led it to a No. 6 preseason ranking. SU showed the shooting, the passing, the flashy dunks and the defense. It showed why many consider Syracuse a favorite to reach the Final Four.SU held the Bears scoreless for those first seven-and-a-half minutes, en route to a 104-54 victory over its helpless opponent in a first-round game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Hakim Warrick led the Orange with 19 points in front of 18,923 at the Carrier Dome. The win ended a two-game SU losing streak in season openers.

Northern Colorado is in the process of a full transition to Division I. After last night, the Bears may want to consider a Division II return.

‘I hate to use the word impressed,’ center Craig Forth said. ‘I felt like I was in Pleasantville.’

The rout was on from the game’s opening tip. SU guard Josh Pace opened the scoring with a running basket. Point guard Gerry McNamara promptly followed, finding senior Hakim Warrick for a trademark alley-oop on the next possession.

The Bears (0-1) turned the ball over on its first three possessions and didn’t hit the rim until its fifth possession – at the 16:10 mark. It didn’t get much better from there.

‘It all started with our defense,’ forward Demetris Nichols said.

After head coach Jim Boeheim voiced his displeasure with SU’s play in its 91-59 exhibition win over St. Rose on Monday, the Orange (1-0) pulled a complete turnaround. Instead of a sloppy season opener, Syracuse played crisply and cleanly. SU showed its complete arsenal, with five players reaching double figures. Fifteen Orange players saw action against the Bears. The only players on SU’s roster who didn’t play were Matt Gorman, who is redshirting this season, and Billy Edelin, who is being held out by Boeheim for academics.

McNamara hit his first 3-pointer of the season to give SU a 9-0 lead, sending the nearly packed student section into a frenzy. Even Forth got into the act, grabbing an offensive board and laying in the rebound.Before Northern Colorado finally scored, the Bears had blown two timeouts and trailed, 24-0.

‘I’ve been down 24-0,’ Forth said. ‘But I’ve never been up by it.’

If anything, the Orange raised already sky-high expectations for the season. Warrick showed dominant low-post play, displaying a new-found, mid-range jumper. McNamara had his shooting touch. The four sophomores – particularly Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins – gave Boeheim solid minutes.

But the most satisfying aspect of the game may have been Syracuse’s defense. The Orange clamped down on the Bears, clearly overmatching Northern Colorado both in size and athleticism. By halftime, the Bears had just 20 points on 20 percent shooting. They shot 25.4 percent for the game.

After a fairly easy opening-game test, things get more difficult tomorrow when SU takes on Princeton in the Syracuse Regional championship game. The winner advances to Madison Square Garden for next Thursday’s Classic semifinals.

‘We’ve still got a lot of work to do,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’re 400 miles from where we want to go. There’s a lot of great games ahead. People always want to look too far ahead in sports.’

Published on November 11, 2004 at 12:00 pm