MILWAUKEE — His teammates call him “Twinkletoes.”

It’s a laughable moniker on the surface, quite possibly the last nickname you’d expect for the 6-foot-8, 290-pound man it describes. But to call Davante Gardner by anything else would be an injustice.

“He doesn’t look like a good player,” Marquette head coach Buzz Williams said. “But he’s pretty good.”

And on this night, Gardner was spectacular, leading the No. 22 Golden Eagles (20-7, 11-4 Big East) to a 74-71 win over Syracuse with a dominating display of girth and grace, strength and sleight. He scored a career-high 26 points – 18 in the second half – and grabbed eight rebounds as he singlehandedly out-toughed the No. 12 Orange (22-6, 10-5). A single missed free throw was the only blemish on a performance that was essentially perfect.

The player whose body resembles an NFL offensive lineman played with the grace of a dancer, and tiptoed his way over, through and around the Syracuse defense before a rowdy crowd of 16,049 in the Bradley Center.

“We lost the game because we didn’t rebound the ball in the second half,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “And when they got it inside, we really couldn’t stop Gardner.”

He became the focal point of the Marquette offense in the second half, asserting himself through superior offensive rebounding, as well as designed plays. The result was the same in both cases: He scored when SU fouled, and scored even more easily when it didn’t.

Gardner, who entered the night shooting 87 percent from the free-throw line in Big East play, made 12 of his 13 attempts Monday. Chants of “Automatic! Automatic!” rained down on the Marquette big man with each successive trip to the stripe.

When Syracuse didn’t foul, Gardner simply carved the 2-3 zone apart. He sliced through the lane for a basket on a beautiful feed from Jamil Wilson that trimmed the Syracuse lead to 55-54 with 5:53 remaining. Then, he executed a devilish little floater up and over the arms of Baye Moussa Keita the next time down the floor.

His points came in a variety of ways, and they always seemed to come at will.

“He’s like Zach Randolph, in a way, with rebounding,” SU guard Brandon Triche said, referring to the Memphis Grizzlies’ power forward. “He just creates space, he doesn’t jump too much. He obviously knows how to get fouled, and he’s shooting like 90 percent from the free-throw line.”

Gardner’s combination of size, quickness and athleticism frustrated Keita and frontcourt partner Rakeem Christmas throughout the second half. His production (26 points on 7-for-7 shooting) dwarfed that of the aforementioned duo combined (nine points on 4-for-9 shooting).

As his teammates were outmuscled by Gardner, DaJuan Coleman watched in frustration from the Syracuse bench. He’s the Orange’s largest physical presence on the interior at 6 feet, 9 inches and 288 pounds, but did not see the court for even a minute on Monday.

He is cleared to play after recovering from minor knee surgery, and Boeheim even said he thought he would be able to go against Marquette. But for some reason, he remained seated, wearing warm-ups, unable to contribute against a huge man amid a huge game.

“I think I’m ready to go,” Coleman said in the locker room after the game. “It’s just up to coach Boeheim.”

Who knows if Coleman would have made a difference, but it’s unclear why Boeheim opted not to try. When asked about it during the postgame press conference, Boeheim said his two best defensive players — Christmas and Keita — were the ones on the court.

On the court, Gardner, a player coach Williams described as “obese” when he thought back to the first time they met, had beaten Boeheim’s team. Gardner changed his diet when he came to Marquette, and worked vigorously with strength and conditioning coaches to rework his body.

On Monday, the fruits of his labor showed through, and at one point, Boeheim told an official Marquette was “the most physical team in the conference.”

So, when Gardner lined up a 17-foot jumper to give Marquette a six-point lead in the closing minutes, it was a cruelly ironic knockout punch. For the final 20 minutes, he had bludgeoned the Orange inside, doing his damage on the interior where his talents went unmatched.

But suddenly, he relented, backed away from the paint he now owned. Everything else had worked, so why not a jump shot, too?

Twinkletoes swished it home, along with the upset.

Published on February 25, 2013 at 9:35 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13