The #2 SU Basketball team beat Rutgers 74-64 in on Sunday afternoon, what turned out to be a hard fought road game at an arena where Rutgers looked poised to knock off their third ranked opponent this season. Scoop Jardine rebounded from a scoreless game against Louisville to score 17 against the Scarlet Knights, adding 7 assists. Jardine hit the "back breaking" three pointer of the game with 1:12 remaining, giving Orange fans at the "RAC" a reason to celebrate with a 7 point lead.

"That's what we would hope for from a senior guard," said Head Coach Jim Boeheim, "He has been doing that all year. He made a two-point jump shot from the side and then the last one, but he has been making plays for us all year."

C.J. Fair led the way for the Orange off the bench with a career high 21 points. Fair's last career high was least season when he dropped 17 against Rutgers as well.

"We knew rutgers was a good team," says Fair, "they had a lot of success over the year, they beat top ten florida, UConn, they beat notre dame here I believe. they are a really good home team, we decided to come out here and place our best."

Kris Joseph contributed 14 points, the 23rd time this season that he has scored in double figures. The first half featured seven ties and nine lead changes, but after a 10-4 run and a 40-34 lead at halftime, the Orange never trailed in the 2nd half, but that wasn't good enough for Coach Boeheim.

"I don't think we are playing the way we have to," said Boeheim, "I thought in the beginning of the year we have some good movement in games, and I thought we were playing better offense then. I think our defense is playing steady. Our offense could still use some work."

"We got some things we can improve on,"admits Joseph, "we've got a couple days of practice before the next game and we're taking it game by game."

The Orange take on South Florida next at the Dome on Wednesday.