SU REMAINS UNBEATEN WITH WIN OVER MICHIGAN STATE

No. 7 Syracuse added a signature win to their early seaso resume with a 72-58 victory over Michigan State in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night. The win moves the Orange to 9-0 on the season and No. 8 Michigan State falls to 6-3.

Scoop Jardine led all scorers with 19 points and Rick Jackson, the leading rebounder in the Big East, produced his seventh double-double in nine games finishing with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Jackson had seven double-doubles in his three-year career prior to the season.

"He's been a monster inside defensively and getting offensive rebounds," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said in the AP Recap. "He's been steady every game for us. We've been very erratic in all the other areas and he's been very good from day one, as good as any inside guy you could ask for."

Junior Kris Joseph added 14 points and four steals as the Syracuse defense forced 17 Spartan turnovers and held MSU to 38.9% (21-54) shooting from the field and held the edge on the boards (31-26) as well.

"The aggressive team usually gets the advantage," Tom Izzo said afterwards to the AP, "but we were taking it like a sissy and they took it up like men."

The Orange stretched their nine-point halftime lead (38-29) to a 12-point advantage at 46-34 with 17:21 left as Joseph (5 points) and Jackson (3) scored the first eight Orange points after intermission. The Spartans would recroup and a Derrick Nix three-point play with 13:16 left capped a 12-2 run that closed the gap to 48-46. A second-chance basket by Jackson would thwart the run and then after a free-throw by Draymond Green, the Orange defense would force four turnovers in the next five Michigan State possessions and a Dion Waiters three-pointer and an old-fashioned three-point play from Jardine would push the SU lead back to nine (56-47) with 8:58 remaining.

Michigan State would never get within six points again and a Jarine hoop with 2:16 left pushed the lead to its largest point, 68-52, as SU cruised home to a 72-58 victory.

The sellout crowd of 19,391 which was solidly pro-Orange, which was expected.

"We like to play here, we always have," Boeheim said. "It's a great place to play and we've had great success here for a long time."

It was the second loss suffered by Michigan State at the hands of Big East teams. The Spartans fell to Connecticut, 70-67, in the Maui Invitational last month.

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