No. 10 Trevor Cooney torches Notre Dame — Top 2013-14 Syracuse basketball moments

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Cooney was all smiles against Notre Dame

Each Thursday over the summer, The Juice Online will be counting down the top 10 moments in the 2013-14 basketball season. We start with No. 10, Syracuse’s 61-55 win over Notre Dame at the Carrier Dome on Feb. 3.

WHAT HAPPENED: Trevor Cooney rescued Syracuse on an otherwise sluggish night.

Just a few days removed from an emotionally draining win over Duke, Cooney drained nine 3-pointers, including nine-straight Orange points to push the lead to 54-44 lead with 4:19 left after the Irish had pulled to within three points.

Syracuse didn’t have much offensive firepower outside of their sophomore sharpshooter, as the rest of the team combined to shoot 10-32 from the field.

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Cooney was all smiles against Notre Dame

“In the first half, neither team could score except for Trevor. It was his half,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Our offense was just not good.”

Cooney proved that he had the hot hand just six minutes into the game, when he hit his first 3. By the end of the first half, he was responsible for 17 of Syracuse’s 31 points and showed no signs of stopping.

» Related: Trevor Cooney has a career game in win over Irish

At the end of the game, he had scored more buckets than his seven other teammates combined.

Boeheim blamed the lull on Syracuse’s hangover from a thrilling 91-89 overtime win against Duke just two days before that.

“We’re coming off a fast-paced game and we just did not adjust well,” he said. “There’s always going to be some sort of a let up when you play a game like Saturday, but you have to find a way.”

WHY IT’S NO. 10: If there was ever a definition of a trap game, this would’ve been it. The Orange had just won arguably the most memorable regular season game of the season, and gave a lackluster effort. Fortunately, Cooney had no such problems, tying a school record for most 3-pointers in a single game held by Gerry McNamara, Andy Rautins and James Southerland.

That allowed the Orange to improve to 22-0 on the season, and 9-0 in the ACC.

Check in next week as we reveal No. 9 on our countdown.

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About Wes Cheng 2907 Articles
Wes has worked for Rivals.com covering the New York Knicks, as well as for Scout.com covering Syracuse athletics. Wes has also been a contributing writer for the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), for SportsNet New York (SNY) as a news desk writer covering all of New York professional sports, and reported on the NBA and MLB for the New York Sportscene. A native of Long Island, New York, Wes graduated from Syracuse University in 2005 with a degree in journalism. Contact him at wes[at]sujuiceonline.com.