Finally, Dennis Tinnon finished the tip-in. His first shot didn’t go, neither did shots by two other Marshall players and Michael Carter-Williams’ block sent the ball back to the Marshall forward about midway through the second half.

But the fifth time was the charm. Tinnon ended the mad scrambles and missed buckets, at least for one possession. Two possessions later, after two missed 3-point attempts, Tinnon tipped in another offensive rebound.

‘They’re a physical rebounding team,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘They really got on the boards, exposed a weakness there. We didn’t do a good job on the boards. We forced a lot of missed shots and then we didn’t get the ball back.’

While Marshall shot a subpar 33.8 percent, Syracuse never fully ran away from the Thundering Herd because of an exceptional performance by Marshall on the offensive glass. Led by Tinnon’s 15 boards, Marshall outrebounded the Orange 46-33, including grabbing 20 offensive rebounds. Syracuse (9-0) gritted its way to a 62-56 win over Marshall (5-2) on Tuesday anyway, but the Thundering Herd’s physicality tested the Orange’s resiliency.

‘They’re definitely very physical,’ SU forward C.J. Fair said. ‘They remind me of a team like Cincinnati. They’re big, their guards are fast and quick, and they’re athletic.’

Marshall entered Tuesday’s game ninth in the country in rebounding margin, outrebounding opponents by 9.7 boards per game. That edge was due much in part to Tinnon, who had three 14-rebound performances already, before his 17-point, 15-rebound game against SU.

Much of it came in the second half, when the Thundering Herd grabbed 15 offensive rebounds compared to 15 total rebounds for the Orange in that span. It was a performance unseen by a Syracuse team with a positive rebounding margin itself this season.

Boeheim said it’s a concern even though some pockets for offensive rebounds were opened by SU’s defense getting out on Marshall’s shooters.

‘Whenever you’re going to play zone there’s going to be some opportunities because of the way we play our zone,’ Boeheim said. ‘… And that’s going to happen. I think we could have done a little bit better job than we did, but (Tinnon) is a good offensive rebounder, and he did a good job.’

With the Orange leading by 14 with about five minutes to play in the second half, Marshall guard Damier Pitts missed a 3-pointer long from the right wing. But his backcourt mate Shaquille Johnson was there for the weak-side rebound. The ball was cycled back out, and Pitts knocked down a second opportunity from long range.

Boeheim also pointed out that this was the first game all season Fair struggled to find himself. The sophomore forward entered the game as SU’s leading rebounder with 6.6 per game.

But he said he never got into a rhythm. After James Southerland contested a shot by Marshall center Nigel Spikes, Fair went with Spikes toward the loose rebound. He didn’t win the race, but SU did manage to gain possession as center Baye Keita finally corralled the rebound.

‘We just have to attack the glass a little better,’ said SU forward Kris Joseph, who had eight rebounds to pace SU. ‘Our leading rebounder, which I think is C.J., only had one rebound tonight and that won’t happen too many nights.’

Other than Scoop Jardine, who had seven rebounds, the Orange guards didn’t pitch in as much on the boards either. 

Brandon Triche had three rebounds — one defensively — and Dion Waiters had zero against a more physical Marshall team with a rotation that included just one player shorter than 6 feet 3 inches.

‘Their guys are pretty athletic, pretty big, and they kind of punked us on the boards today,’ Waiters said. ‘And myself, the other guards, we got to get more involved, like Scoop had seven rebounds today I heard, so that’s a big stat right there.’

For just the second time all season, Syracuse was outrebounded. And this time, it wasn’t even close. Against a team that perhaps matches the physicality SU will face when it enters Big East play, the Orange was forced to gut out a win.

It was a learning point.

Said Boeheim: ‘It’s a physical game, and they are coming at you, and there are going to be a lot of games like that down the road.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on December 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr