PITTSBURGH -Syracuse’s punctuation mark came fittingly from the Orange’s leading scorer through its two NCAA Tournament games.

With the game already in hand, James Southerland trailed Dion Waiters as Waiters led a fast break. Waiters dished a pass to the junior forward, who then slammed it through the hoop.

Southerland finished SU’s 75-59 win over Kansas State with 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks. He and Waiters lead the Orange with 30 points in the tournament, and Southerland is second on the team with 14 rebounds in two games. He also added three blocks against the Wildcats on Saturday.

‘Best kept secret,’ Waiters said of Southerland. ‘He did a great job coming off the bench hitting shots, hitting big-time 3s when we need them, rebounding, just doing all the dirty work.’

Southerland has exploded out of a midseason slump in recent weeks and has been a key contributor for the Orange off the bench.

In the second-round contest with UNC Asheville on Thursday, he led the team with 15 points and went 3-for-5 from 3-point range. One of those long-range bombs was a late dagger from straightaway that put the Orange up eight with 2:36 left.

Against Kansas State, he again came up big in the second half after scoring just two points in the first 20 minutes. He hit a 3 to put Syracuse up 13 from almost the same spot on the floor as his clutch shot against the Bulldogs, and he added another triple two minutes later to give SU a 58-44 edge.

‘My team knows what I can do,’ Southerland said. ‘They’re going a good job of getting me involved the past two games, and I know they’re going to keep looking for me.’

The junior’s resurgence has been even more critical with the struggles of sophomore forward C.J. Fair. Southerland provides a different skill set than Fair, though they play the same position on the floor.

Southerland is one of the best pure shooters on the team. Fair is more of a physical, midrange type forward.

But with Southerland’s hot streak and Fair’s mini-slump, the junior has allowed Syracuse to maintain its depth off the bench with his and Waiters’ strong performances.

‘We’ve said all year we think we’ve got seven guys that can start,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Certainly the way James is playing now, and Dion is playing, they’re arguably as good as most starters on most teams.’

Southerland has only missed three of his 14 shots in the two tournament games, but he’s also stepped it up on the glass. Boeheim criticized him last year for not putting enough effort into rebounding, but he has used his size and athleticism to be a factor on the boards lately.

And although he struggled to find his 3-point shot in the middle of the season, he seems to be hitting on all cylinders in the most important time of the year.

‘James did an incredible job,’ junior Brandon Triche said. ‘He was doing this throughout the beginning of the season. He kind of faded off when C.J. started playing well. We’re a team that picks each other up.’

McGruder slowed by injury

Kansas State learned it would be playing without second-leading scorer Jamar Samuels due to an eligibility issue shortly before its contest with Syracuse started. About midway through the first half, the Wildcats almost lost their leading scorer, too.

Rodney McGruder pulled up for a corner jumper, and Triche came at him to contest the shot. The Wildcats guard missed the shot, but his left foot landed on Triche’s, causing him to twist his ankle. He stayed on the floor for a couple of seconds in pain before trying to walk it off. When a stoppage in play came shortly after, though, he limped off to the locker room to get checked out.

‘It was tough to play on,’ McGruder said. ‘But I just wanted the victory, so I just tried to fight through it.’

The junior finished with a team-high 15 points but only shot 5-of-13 from the field in the loss to SU. He returned to the game later in the first half, but the ankle appeared to slow him down.

Almost immediately after his return, he had a chance for a run-out dunk. He leapt off the injured ankle but shorted the jump, forcing him to try to lay it in instead. The ball rolled around the rim and out.

Though the ankle hindered him throughout the game, McGruder still felt he and his teammates missed out on an opportunity to pull the upset.

‘We just didn’t hit the shots we normally hit,’ he said. ‘We had open looks. We just didn’t take advantage of the open looks we had.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on March 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm