The Syracuse University Men's Basketball team trailed NC State 29-23 late in the first half, and the Wolfpack looked poised to take SU down to the wire.
Then the Orange woke up.
Syracuse scored 23 consecutive points, took a 46-29 lead and never trailed again en route to an 88-72 victory. Dion Waiters led SU with 22 points.
SU took a 14-point lead into the halftime break but NC State would rally, and take advantage of a cold SU start to the second half, but again SU used a run to pull away for a double digit win. NC State tied the game at 50, and a couple more times after that. SU methodically expanded the lead to a half dozen. The Wolfpack nailed a three pointer to cut the deficit to three at 66-63, but SU went on another run to expand its lead to 11 at 74-63 and never looked back.
Kris Joseph scored 21 points, 9 of them coming from three-point land and Scoop Jardine scored 16 points.
Once again, the bench was key for SU as C.J. Fair and James Southerland each scored 11 points to go along with Waiters' 22 points. Syracuse leads the nation in points scored from players coming off the bench.
The Orange remains perfect (11-0) and almost assuredly will retain its #1 ranking, its next game is Tuesday night in the Carrier Dome against Bucknell at 7 p.m.
