Scoop Jardine backpedaled down the court as the Carrier Dome crowd broke into yet another deafening roar.

Jardine had just drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing to push Syracuse’s lead over Florida to eight points with 3:54 remaining in the game. And as the Syracuse senior guard settled into his position on defense on the opposite end of the floor, he could no longer hold in his emotions.

He partook in the celebration, jumping in the air with an emphatic fist pump and letting out a scream right in front of Florida’s Kenny Boynton.

‘The 3? That was there for me all night,’ Jardine said. ‘It was the perfect time. It was the perfect time, and I made it, man. It was a big, huge shot for us.’

Jardine’s 3 was the highlight of his spectacular play down the stretch that proved to be the difference in No. 4 Syracuse’s (8-0) 72-68 win over No. 10 Florida (5-2) in front of 24,459 — the largest crowd at the Dome this season — on Friday night in the Big East/SEC Challenge. Jardine took over the game for SU late in the second half, knocking down a variety of big shots, making plays on defense and getting to the foul line to ice the victory. In a back-and-forth second half of a showdown between top 10 teams, Jardine rose to the occasion and finally left his mark on an Orange victory. He finished with 16 points, seven assists and four rebounds.

After watching from the bench in New York City as Dion Waiters and Brandon Triche closed out two victories, Jardine worked hard at practice and stayed positive coming into the Florida game, SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.

And when SU needed someone to step up with the game on the line, Jardine seized the opportunity Friday night. He scored eight of the Orange’s 10 points in a span of less than four minutes late in the second half to give SU a commanding 62-53 lead with 2:36 left in the game.

‘He won the game. Simple as that,’ Boeheim said. ‘Other guys obviously made plays. C.J. (Fair) was good, Brandon was really good, but I thought Scoop won the game.’

That defining stretch began with 6:28 on the clock.

Syracuse was hanging on to a three-point lead, a cushion it had seen erased two times by Boynton, who got hot from beyond the arc in the second half.

But Jardine ensured the Gators wouldn’t tie the game again. He stole the ball from guard Scottie Wilbekin and raced down the floor to finish a finger roll.

After Florida responded with a bucket on its next possession, Syracuse needed another answer to keep Florida at arm’s length. And again, it turned to Jardine to make the play.

With the shot clock at less than 10 seconds and the ball in his hands at the top of the key, the point guard swooped into the lane with a crossover and made a tough floater over the defense.

‘Our guys battled back and forth with them,’ Florida head coach Billy Donovan said. ‘And then those couple plays, in particular Jardine, I thought it gave them certainly a little breathing room coming down the stretch.’

After Fair sank a jumper from the right corner, Jardine made the dagger from long range to extend SU’s lead to eight and seal the victory.

Jardine stayed on the attack on the Orange’s next possession, controlling the ball in the left corner before making a sharp crossover to his right hand to slice into the lane, where he was undercut by Will Yeguete as he flipped the ball toward the basket.

At the foul line, Jardine made the first to get within one point of the 1,000-point mark, but missed the second, ending his inspired run to give SU its nine-point lead. Jardine got that final point to achieve the milestone when he returned to the foul line with 17 seconds left, nailing both free throws to solidify the win for Syracuse.

For Fair, seeing Jardine become the fearless playmaker with the game on the line was key for the Orange in this game and the rest of the season.

‘It was great because he’s our leader, he’s our senior point guard and we need him every night,’ Fair said. ‘And he was here the night we needed him for a big game against a top 10 team. So that was a good sign, and he’s gonna be there when big games come.’

And for Boeheim, Jardine was simply the difference in the team’s biggest win of the season so far. As Jardine rose up for that 3-pointer, Boeheim knew before the shot went through the net and the crowd erupted that it was going down.

‘We were dead in the water,’ Boeheim said. ‘He made a couple drives that were really hard, and after he made those when he came off the screen, I knew he was gonna make that 3. He won the game for us.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on December 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu