For about 10 minutes Saturday night, Al Walker patrolled the Carrier Dome sidelines with vigor. The Binghamton men’s basketball team followed its coach, fighting Syracuse for every rebound and playing scrappy defense.

The Orangemen quickly put a halt to the Bearcats’ fury, jumping out to a 21-point lead in the opening 12:15 and earning a dominating 94-58 win before 19,770.

‘Since we haven’t been playing well in the beginning (of games),’ SU forward Kueth Duany said, ‘we’ve focused especially on coming out and taking their heart in the beginning.’

Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony scored 11 points in the first 12:15 and ended with 24 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, all game highs.

Anthony gave the Orangemen a 34-15 lead with 9:35 left in the first half when he shook off Binghamton’s Brandon Carter and nailed a three-pointer in Carter’s face. Earlier, Anthony jammed home a Hakim Warrick missed free throw.

‘Coming out tonight, I tried to get everybody involved,’ said Anthony, who collected four assists and attempted two behind-the-back passes in the first half. ‘They came out and tried to run with us, but that’s our game right there, and they couldn’t beat us with our game.’

The Orangemen found their hot hands early, shooting 67.7 percent in the first half. Anthony, Warrick and Duany, who’s worked especially hard on shooting in practice this year, combined to shoot 15 of 19 in the first 20 minutes.

‘We were sharp right from the beginning,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Tonight, everything was really just going in for us.’

The Bearcats fought back, cutting the defecit to 52-36 at halftime. But the Orangemen went on a 20-8 run in the second half, capped by a two-handed Duany slam off Anthony’s feed with 11:22 left.

Early in the second half, the Orangemen got a scare when Anthony tried an up-and-under layup and landed awkwardly on his right knee. The Dome crowd fell silent as the freshman writhed in pain, and SU doctors helped him to the locker room. Icing his bruised knee, Anthony returned a minute later to applause.

‘When he went down, I heard him scream and say something about his knee,’ Warrick said. ‘But when he got up and was walking, I knew he was going to be fine.’

Riding the early lead, the Orangemen mixed things up against the under-matched Bearcats late, even experimenting with a full-court press – with mixed results.

SU center Jeremy McNeil fed on Binghamton’s small lineup, camping out underneath the basket to block five shots. McNeil closed the first half with a flurry of swats.

‘If people challenge him, he’s going to block shots,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s what he does.’

Earlier, he stuffed a Binghamton player so hard that the sound of McNeil’s hand smacking the ball could be heard across the court. The block seemed thunderous enough to flatten the ball, which seems fitting, considering the way the Orangemen deflated the Bearcats’ hopes.

‘It’s really important to jump on them from the start,’ Warrick said, ‘and just keep rolling them throughout the game.’

Published on December 13, 2002 at 12:00 pm