COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Freshman point guards are supposed to struggle in hostile road environments and when Syracuse traveled down to Durham, N.C., to face Duke on Saturday, Tyler Ennis looked like one of those freshmen.

He didn’t score a field goal until almost midway through the second half against the Blue Devils and finished with only nine points.

Twenty minutes into Monday’s win in front of another hostile crowd in College Park, Md., he matched that.

With the clock winding down in the first half, all of the Orange’s offensive options broke down. Ennis was left alone at the top of the key. From several feet behind the 3-point line, he had to force up a shot.

“I just tried to get a good look,” Ennis said. “I just pulled up and it went in.”

The freshman followed up a nine-point, 2-for-13 performance in a loss to then-No. 5 Duke with his fourth 20-point outing of the year in Monday’s 57-55 win against Maryland in the Comcast Center. The guard scored 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting to help No. 4 Syracuse (26-2, 13-2 Atlantic Coast) build a big enough lead against the Terrapins (15-13, 7-8) early in the second half to hold off for another narrow victory.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim asked him to be more aggressive offensively, and Ennis responded with one of the most commanding offensive performances of his young career.

“Tyler we asked to be more offensive minded,” Boeheim said, “and I thought that was the key really.”

This time, he waited just a handful of minutes to make his first shot. Less than three minutes in, he silenced an early UMD run with a pull-up jumper to knot the score at five.

He added a couple more shots in the midrange before making the long 3 to end the half and give the Orange a 32-24 lead.

“He was really aggressive coming out,” Jerami Grant said. “Without having me on the court, he was looking even more aggressive.

“I felt like that was one of the reasons we won the game.”

The Syracuse forward exited the game at the 2:01 mark of the first half and did not return because of a sore back. He’s the Orange’s third option behind C.J. Fair and Ennis, so their volume of shots ballooned.

Fair took many of his 17 shots early in the game before he got in foul trouble, but Ennis scored 14 of his 20 points in the 22:01 that SU played without Grant.

Between Grant’s injury and foul trouble for Fair and Rakeem Christmas, Ennis was the one constant on offense.

“(That) was a lot to overcome,” Boeheim said, “and Tyler Ennis was able to do enough to overcome that.”

During one four-minute stretch during the second half, with Syracuse trying to maintain a commanding lead, Ennis scored seven straight points for the Orange as it stretched the lead from seven to 12.

He drilled a 3 from the top of the key with the shot clock winding down to get it to 10 and answered a layup by Dez Wells with one of his own to keep it at double digits.

After two missed shots by Fair and Michael Gbinije, Ennis muscled his way through the lane and hit a fadeaway on the left side of the paint to put SU up 12 — its largest lead of the game.

In 3:51 alone, Ennis nearly matched his entire production from his rough game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“At Duke, some of the shots I usually make didn’t go in,” Ennis said, “so I’ve just got to stay aggressive and keep shooting shots that I usually make.”

Ennis’ personal 7-2 run came in the middle of a nearly nine-minute scoring drought for Fair that saw him commit a turnover and miss two shots.

He scored just twice more down the stretch, but his play opened the way for Fair to finish with 17 points of his own and sink a critical 3-pointer in the final minutes.

“It was just being aggressive,” Ennis said. “C.J. had it going for a little bit and when he misses a few shots, we’ve got to get everybody focused on me and get him back the ball. With Jerami out we’ve got to be more aggressive and fill his void.”

Published on February 25, 2014 at 12:43 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2