Spring Break
The Daily OrangeMBB | Smooth sailing: Complete effort in 1st half led by Greene sends SU to victory
By Matt Gelb
Posted: 11/16/07, 10:33 PM EST Section: Sports
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When Greene called the former Syracuse star after his 25-point performance for the Denver Nuggets in a win over Portland Wednesday night, Anthony had a few things to say to Syracuse's newest freshman phenom.
"He told me how I can't take over a game early and I gotta work on doing that," Greene said. "So I'm definitely going to call him tonight and let him know what happened."
Greene scored Syracuse's first 11 points Friday night in Syracuse's 80-63 win over Fordham.
Take that 'Melo.
The Orange took over from Greene's hot start and played its best half of the early season. After building a 14-point lead headed into the locker room, Syracuse cruised past the Rams by 17 points, in front of 21,180 at the Carrier Dome.
Next up for the Orange (3-0) is a trip to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday to take on last year's national runner-up Ohio State in the semifinals of the NIT Tip-Off. Game time is 9 p.m.
Greene scored a career-high 25 points on an impressive 10-for-14 shooting mark, including two on an unbelievable alley-oop pass from Jonny Flynn that Greene had to reach well behind his back to catch the ball and slam it home.
The Carrier Dome crowd exploded into a frenzy as the dunk was replayed three times on the Dome's big board.
The dunk was what the fans remembered, but it was part of a first half that was Syracuse's best 20 minutes in the young season.
Syracuse, as a whole, had 13 assists to only four turnovers in the first half. The Orange forced nine Fordham (2-2) turnovers and scored 13 points off of the giveaways. SU outscored the Rams 22-4 inside the paint and shot 55 percent from the field overall in the first 20 minutes.
"Donte got us going early," Boeheim said. "He was tremendous early. Everybody picked it up after that."
Senior guard Josh Wright was not in the building for the game and has not practiced in two days after logging four minutes in SU's first game and not playing against St. Joseph's on Tuesday.
"His father called me tonight," Boeheim said. "He's home, he doesn't feel well. I haven't seen him. That's it. That's all I know."
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