COLLEGE PARK, Md. — There were plenty of reasons for C.J. Fair to be fired up against Maryland on Monday.

The game was played in his home state, about half an hour from Baltimore, and happened to fall just two days after he had a game-tying layup against then-No. 5 Duke taken away by the officials with a controversial charge call.

“I’m pumped up every game,” he said while standing on the side of the court, surrounded by friends and family, “but of course playing in Maryland, it’s my home state. I was definitely psyched.”

The forward scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds in his first and only trip to his home state for No. 4 Syracuse. He carried the Orange’s (26-2, 13-2 Atlantic Coast) offense early before he had to sit down with three fouls, and lifted SU to a 57-55 win against Maryland (15-13, 7-8) in the Comcast Center with a late 3.

And his big day was largely thanks to the rediscovery of his jump shot.

His first 10 points all came on jump shots, including a pretty step-back jumper with 8:31 remaining to give Syracuse an early six-point lead.

“I thought we got off to a good start,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “C.J. got us off to a good start offensively.”

But in the span of 35 seconds, Fair picked up two fouls and he had to check out for the rest of the first half with 4:55 remaining.

He isn’t usually demonstrative, but he was livid with the officials when he picked up his third foul. In his home state, against a team that opted not to recruit him heavily when he tore his ACL, he was fired up.

“It was tough for me to watch,” Fair said. “I’ve never been out that long all season. I was out for like four minutes.”

Fair opened the Orange’s scoring in the second half with a breakaway dunk, but then went cold as Tyler Ennis took over.

He scored only five more points the rest of the way, but as the shot clock ticked down and 3:07 remained in the game, Fair made another step-back jumper. This one, though, was behind the arc and gave Syracuse a seven-point lead — a cushion that the Orange would need every bit of.

“I was definitely trying to be aggressive today,” Fair said. “I know we needed this win bad.”

Published on February 25, 2014 at 12:51 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2