The motions became routine. Indiana dumped it into the paint where Noah Vonleh stood. The freshman would make a move and get grabbed, pushed or smacked. Two shots.

Vonleh stepped to the line for a pair of free throws and usually made both. It was about all the Hoosiers (6-2) could do offensively during their 69-52 loss to No. 4 Syracuse (8-0) on Tuesday in the Carrier Dome as part of the Big Ten-Atlantic Coast Conference Challenge.

“He shot a lot of free throws,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “I know that.”

The Orange handled IU’s big men relatively well, even though Vonleh dropped 17. The forward went just 2-for-5 from the field and collected 13 points at the free-throw line.

The Orange knew that Vonleh was going to be the base of the Hoosiers’ offense — he was a McDonald’s All-American in high school and is the leading rebounder in the Big Ten — but it became repetitive to the point of obviousness.

“It kind of seemed like that toward the later part of the game where the guys caught it on the wing there and just immediately looked to him,” Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney said.

But it didn’t stop him from still being Indiana’s leading scorer. The Hoosiers still ran their offense like clockwork and, even though the Orange’s big men were solid defensively, his parade to the free-throw line continued throughout the night.

“Refs called fouls early,” DaJuan Coleman said. “Just trying to get around him, they’re going to call that this year because of the new rules.”

The SU forward said that there’s still a process of adjusting to the new rules, but everyone is going through the same thing. The Orange isn’t going to change its style of defense just because of some of the changes, even if it let Vonleh shoot 16 free throws.

It also meant that Coleman and fellow forward C.J. Fair spent much of the second half on the bench in foul trouble. SU doubled down on the talented young forward and sacrificed open looks from the outside.

Syracuse couldn’t keep the ball out of his hands, but the Hoosiers also couldn’t capitalize on the open looks. On Tuesday, the Orange’s game plan played out perfectly.

“He’s a really good player,” SU guard Tyler Ennis said. “We wanted to keep him in check as much as possible and not even let him get it, but when he did we wanted to help the bigs out.”

Published on December 4, 2013 at 3:47 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2