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Christmas Carries Orange To First Win Over Ranked Team

@WAERSports

Welcome back, Rakeem Christmas.

Christmas bounced back from his worst two-game stretch of the season and scored 29 points against No. 12 Louisville and had eight rebounds and four blocks.  It helped Syracuse get its first win of the season against a top 25 opponent, a 69-59 victory in the Carrier Dome on Wednesday night.  Coming into the game, the Orange was 0-4 against ranked teams this season.

"I was just getting the ball in the post and getting to the basket," Christmas said.  "We were wearing down their defense just getting to the basket and drawing a lot of fouls."

Syracuse improved to 17-9 (8-5 ACC) while Louisville fell to 20-6 and has lost three of its last four.

Michael Gbinije continued his strong play with 18 points and Tyler Roberson added 13 for the Orange.  

But the star of the show was Christmas, who missed only one of his ten shots.  He was coming off a poor performance against No. 4 Duke when he got dominated in the paint by freshman center JahlilOkafor.  SU's 6-foot-9 senior went just 5-17 from the field for 11 points, while Okafor scored 23.  Before that, he managed a season-low seven points against Boston College in only his second game this season without scoring in double figures.

Against Louisville, Christmas returned to his usual self even against Montrezl Harrell, whose considered one of the best bigs in the country.  Christmas scored more field goals against the Cardinals (9) than he did in the past two games combined (8).  The only time Christmas scored more points in a Syracuse uniform was when he had 35 in a win over Wake Forest on Jan. 13. 

"He was great tonight," Jim Boeheim said. "He finished everything down there. He was spectacular in the low post."

Christmas made his first five shots of the night, beginning with an emphatic two-handed dunk that gave Syracuse an early 5-4 lead.

After Syracuse trailed by four at halftime, Christmas gave the Orange a 49-47 lead on a three-point play with with 9:03 to go.  From then on, Syracuse would never trail.

The Orange gave away previous chances for a marquee win against No. 17 Michigan and No. 7 Villanova with untimely turnovers in the last few minutes of regulation.  Boeheim credited his team's defense as the reason why his team finally pulled through against a ranked team after having those close losses earlier in the season. 

"We were just better," Boeheim said.  "We were more active on defense, we kept them from getting the ball where they wanted to and we kept Harrell from getting the ball down low."

Syracuse went on a 25-12 run to close out the last 10:20 of the game.  Right in the middle of that was Christmas, who scored 18 of his 29 points during the second half.  He put the game away with 32.8 second left by grabbing a rebound that was contested by two Louisville forwards and drawing a foul.  He calmly walked to other end of the floor to take his free throws and gave a shrug to the Carrier Dome crowd.

It capped off the the type of performance that became commonplace for most of the season, but missing of late.

"It was a great moment," Christmas said. "In games like these, you just have to go out there, play your heart out and see what happens.  That's what we did tonight and we won."