No. 1 Syracuse (15-0, 2-0) remains undefeated after senior forward Kris Joseph [13] led the Orange to an 87-68 victory over DePaul (9-4, 0-1) Sunday night.
Joseph, who finished the night with a season-high 22 points, led the Orange to their fifteenth straight victory and second straight against Big East opponents. With his performance, Joseph passed Ryan Blackwell for 42nd on the SU’s career scoring list with 1,190 career points. He also finished the night with a team-high 7 rebounds.
Joseph was also among the five SU players who scored in double-figures. Fellow forward C.J. Fair [14] had a season-high 16 points off the bench, while also hailing in five rebounds. Guards Dion Waiters [15] and Brandon Triche [16] netted 13 and 10 points, respectively.
Sophomore center Fab Melo [17] added 12 points, but his most dominating performance came on defense, where the 7-foot big man blocked six shots and grabbed five rebounds.
Three minutes into the game, Triche ignited a 15-2 Syracuse run which lasted until 12:54 mark. From then on, the Orange controlled the game, never leading by less than 16 points. After twenty minutes, Syracuse was leading the Blue Demons 45-26.
SU would increase that lead in the second half to as much as 28 points after a Scoop Jardine [18] fast break lay-up made the score 85-57. At that point the game was already over, and an 11-2 DePaul run would end the game with SU on top.
The Orange shot an outstanding 59 percent for the game on 34 of 58 shooting, while the Blue Demons shot 40 percent on 25 of 62 shooting.
Syracuse dominated in the paint and on the fast break, outscoring DePaul 58-34 and 16-4, respectively. The Orange also outrebounded the Blue Demons 35-32.
The Orange look to remain unbeaten as they travel to play Providence on Jan. 4 at 9 p.m.
