WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — An air ball two feet long. A scoreboard that showed more team fouls than points. A head coach that watched in equal parts anger and disgust as his team missed 13 consecutive shots early in the first half.

“It’s amazing,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “I came here and had the best Italian dinner last night. I thought during the game that was all I was going to get.”

Syracuse’s slow start against Wake Forest on Wednesday night was arguably its worst of the season.

With the score 12-6 Demon Deacons more than halfway through the opening frame, it appeared the SU head coach might fly back with nothing more than spaghetti and meatballs. But in a game where everything else was ugly, Boeheim’s freshman point guard Tyler Ennis was utterly magnificent in the second half.

He finished with 16 of his 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting after the break, propelling the No. 2 Orange (20-0, 7-0 Atlantic Coast) to a 67-57 win over Wake Forest (14-7, 4-4). Ennis picked up right where he left off following clutch closeouts against then-No. 20 Pittsburgh and Miami (Fla.), helping Syracuse to match its best-ever start to a season.

“Tyler Ennis played like a freshman in the first half,” Boeheim said. “In the second half he played like the senior he is. He got going. That was the difference in the game.”

Ennis whirled around the corners of Wake Forest’s step-behind 3-2 zone. He curled in from the corner and finished at the rim time after time.

A flip shot over Arnaud-William Adala Moto. A slip between Moto and Travis McKie for a layup. A strong take to the rim in transition.

“Ennis pretty much had his way,” WFU head coach Jeff Bzdelik said.

He scored five straight points for the Orange early in the second stanza and eight of 10 spanning the 11:04-7:18 marks.

Even when Ennis appeared to tweak his ankle, and Boeheim asked the referee to make sure his star freshman was OK, Ennis waved off the official. He stayed in for the entire game.

“I’m kind of just trying to stay aggressive,” Ennis said. “I think the more teams that have to worry about me, the more open looks that C.J. (Fair) and Trevor (Cooney) will get.”

In total, he only handed out four assists. But part of that was due to the rest of the team’s 34.1 percent shooting from the field.

In a game where both teams combined to make an atrocious 6-of-34 triples, Ennis was the only player to make more than four field goals.

And he made all six in the second half.

“He just took the game over,” Boeheim said. “It was a struggling game and he took the game over.”

Standing by his locker after the game, Ennis slid a tall, white sock over his right ankle. The inside of it was red, but the swelling was minimal. He didn’t wear any ice on it and walked without a limp.

The freshman who Boeheim once said saved the Orange three losses in non-conference play may have saved the team from a loss for the third straight game.

After Wednesday’s game, Boeheim emphasized that Ennis, along with Cooney, have been the two key factors in Syracuse’s success.

Said Boeheim: “That’s why we’re where we are.”

Published on January 29, 2014 at 11:27 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1