NEW YORK –– Pump fake. One dribble. Side-step. Swoosh. Repeat.

Brandon Triche does it in practice. He did it at the Prudential Center to carry SU to a sloppy win Saturday over Seton Hall.

And on what Triche equates to a basketball ‘stage’, Madison Square Garden, fundamental shooting was on full display in the second half Wednesday for the Syracuse guard. He did it Wednesday after one of his trademark disappearing acts in the first half in No. 4 SU’s 76-59 win over St. John’s. The sophomore guard totaled three 3-pointers, finishing the game with 15 points before SU head coach Jim Boeheim pulled him in the game’s final minutes.

He knows his role as a shooting guard. A role he has amplified and embraced on Syracuse’s latest road swing.

‘I am going to just have to knock down open shots,’ Triche said.

Under the MSG lights he and his Syracuse teammates love – the ones they stole from St. John’s, yet again – Triche opened up for a pivotal second half shooting performance. For the second straight game, he did the best of his work in a short amount of time, in the second half.

Confidence exemplified through simple fundamentals. It was exactly what SU head coach Jim Boeheim wants to see. A brash attitude and emotion exemplified through quiet smart decisions. Point after point from knowing to be in the right spot.

It’s becoming classic Triche.

Yet, the head coach is still wondering why Triche doesn’t perform at a high level from the tip-off. It’s almost as if Boeheim expects it not to come, but knows he can rely on the fact Triche’s play will rise to another level. And it will in bunches.

‘He doesn’t shoot the first 10 minutes,’ Boeheim said. ‘He waits to see if we need him and then he starts to play after that.’

Wednesday, Triche pulled the trigger a little more than Boeheim gave credit for in the first 10 minutes. He attempted two 3-pointers in the game’s first five minutes. But from there until the half’s final minute, he didn’t attempt anything but a dunk and a layup.

Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine say they know Triche tends to play this way, as well. Drive and kicks from the two SU juniors, the team’s leading scorers on the season, are sometimes a must to get Triche going. It’s all about good shots for the team as a whole.

And Triche as well. Because, sometimes without those open looks to start games, the shooting guard wanders.

‘We are penetrating and kicking making the defense converge to one person,’ Joseph said of Triche’s shooting success. ‘It is a high percentage shot.’

High percentage is exactly what Triche has become. In the Seton Hall and St. John’s games combined, he has shot 11-of-18 overall (61 percent) and 7-of-11 from 3 (64 percent).

More important than the percentage may be the timeliness. By the time he left the game at MSG Wednesday, Triche’s eight second half points turned an 11-point lead into a 20-point blowout. The niche he has carved for himself — second half sharpshooter — was again being practiced. Sometimes via pump-fake. Sometimes via a Jardine drive-and-kick.

Despite another disappearing act in the first half, Triche was there in the second half to put the game away. The selfless point guard has given up the reigns of the SU offense to Jardine, finding a new role for himself as the fundamental shooter.

And for the fundamental shooter, he is just one part of the subsequent fundamental stages of SU team-ball.

Said Triche: ‘Me having that ability is going to open up the floor and open up better driving lanes.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on January 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm