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C.J. Fair struggles, but No. 9 Syracuse survives St. Francis NY

St Francis v Syracuse

SYRACUSE, NY - NOVEMBER 18: C.J. Fair #5 of Syracuse Orange cuts towards the basket during the first half of a basketball game against St Francis Terriers on November 18, 2013 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** C.J. Fair

Brett Carlsen

No. 9 Syracuse forced turnovers on back-to-back set plays out of timeouts and scored the final ten points as they survived an upset bid from St. Francis NY on Monday night.

The final score was 56-50, but in all honesty, the Orange are lucky that they were in striking distance down the stretch. That’s how poorly they played.

After DaJuan Coleman scored 14 points in the first half, he spent much of the second half on the bench as the Orange were thoroughly dominated in the paint by a smaller, but more physical and aggressive Terrier team.

There are bigger fish to fry, however.

Tyler Ennis had another subpar game, finishing with two points and three assists. He’s not turning the ball over -- he has just six in four games this season -- but he was just 1-for-8 from the floor and hasn’t done much off the bounce in the last couple of games to create for his teammates. Syracuse doesn’t have a lot of one-on-one scorers. They need Ennis to create shots.

That issue gets magnified when C.J. Fair played like he did on Monday. The senior, who was a preseason all-american, finished with seven points and six boards while shooting 2-for-13 from the field and turning the ball over three times. That’s not going to cut it, especially on a night when the Orange are struggling to find points.

The bottom-line is this: Fair wants to be “the guy”, and Syracuse needs him to be “the guy”. All-Americans, first round draft picks, go-to guys, they all do the same thing: take over when their team is struggling. They demand the ball in crunch-time, whether it’s by calling a play for themselves or being so good that the coach doesn’t have a choice but to call their number.

Fair could very well end up fulfilling that role before the season is over, but he blew his first chance to do so on Monday night.

Trevor Cooney finished with 13 points and Jerami Grant added 12 off the bench for Syracuse.