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Syracuse starts ACC play with tough win over Miami

Jan 5, 2014 - 12:31 AM Syracuse, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - The second-ranked Syracuse Orange came away with a hard-fought victory in their first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference game.

C.J. Fair had 15 points and six rebounds in the Orange's 49-44 win over the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday at the Carrier Dome.

Trevor Cooney added 11 points for Syracuse (14-0, 1-0 ACC), which made the move to the ACC this season after a lengthy run in the Big East. Tyler Ennis tallied 10 points and seven assists.

"It was definitely an ugly game but we were fortunate to pull it out," Fair said. "Give a lot of credit to Miami, they did a good job getting good shots, holding the shot clock down, making us work on defense. They had a solid match-up zone and we could not really get anything going."

Garrius Adams ended with nine points for the Hurricanes (8-6, 0-2), who had a three-game winning streak snapped. James Kelly and Manu Lecomte each had eight points.

Trailing 40-35 with six minutes to play, the Orange ended the game on a 14-4 run to claim victory. Fair's jumper with 4:16 left gave Syracuse the lead for good and Ennis added a layup with 2:01 remaining for a 45-42 edge.

Adams tried to tie the game with a 3-pointer in the final minute but was off the mark. Cooney made a pair of free throws at the other end to give the Orange a five-point lead with 24.8 seconds to go.

Kelly made a jumper with 9.1 ticks remaining to keep Miami alive, but Ennis sealed the victory for Syracuse with two free throws.

Syracuse led by as many as six in the first half and took a 25-21 lead into the locker room.

However, the Hurricanes started the second half on a 14-4 surge. Lecomte tallied five points during the burst that Rion Brown capped with a jumper for a 35-29 edge.

The Orange kept it close and Rakeem Christmas' jumper with 5:55 left ignited the game-ending run.

Game Notes

Syracuse owns a 15-5 advantage in the all-time series ... The Orange went 12- of-14 from the foul line, while the Hurricanes went 3-of-4 from the charity stripe ... Christmas tallied eight points and seven rebounds.