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Freshman Flynn leads Syracuse past Siena

Nov 13, 2007 - 5:00 AM SYRACUSE, New York (Ticker) -- After missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four seasons, hot-shooting freshman Jonny Flynn helped Syracuse begin the new campaign on the right foot.

A Big East preseason co-Freshman of the Year, Flynn scored 28 points on 10-of-13 shooting and added nine assists as No. 25 Syracuse posted a 97-89 victory over Siena in the first round of the Preseason NIT tournament on Monday.

"I do what I can do to help my team out," Flynn said. "I went to the bench one time in the second half and Coach (Jim) Boeheim told me to go back to the high school days and just score. I credit him for lighting that fire under me to go out and score some points."

Junior Eric Devendorf had 19 points and sophomore Paul Harris added 14 points and 15 rebounds for Syracuse, which will play Saint Joseph's in the second round on Tuesday. The Hawks defeated Fairleigh Dickinson, 86-66, on Monday.

Flynn made 6-of-7 shots from the arc and his 28 points also broke the school record for scoring by a freshman in his debut, which was previously set by Carmelo Anthony (27) in November 2002.

"We're just trying to win games here," Flynn said. "Regardless of whether I score five points or 20 points, as long as we win, I'm satisfied."

The Orange made 16 of their first 21 shots and were 8-of-13 from the arc in the first half en route to taking a 14-point lead at the break.

However, Siena (0-2) opened the second half on a 12-2 run to close the gap to 55-51 with 16:45 to play.

With the Orange leading, 69-65, midway through the second half, Flynn hit 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to expand the Syracuse lead to nine with 8:44 to play.

"Jonny played extremely well, but it's hard to be happy about what we did on offense when the defense was so bad," Boeheim said.

The Saints cut the deficit back down to four with just over three minutes to play, but could not get any closer.

Kenny Hasbrouck scored a career-high 24 points to lead the Saints, who dropped to 0-8 all-time against Syracuse.

"I think Siena is one of the more difficult teams we are going to have to play," Boeheim said. "They have a lot of guys that can shoot, they really push the ball, and they are quick. I don't think offense is a problem. We scored 97 points, but we turned it over 23 times."