Rakeem Christmas didn’t even wait for Chris McCullough to finish.

In the midst of going toe to toe with Holy Cross’ point total on his own, Christmas passed out of a double team to his fellow forward and threw his arm up in celebration as McCullough flushed home a two-handed dunk.

Unlike Syracuse’s previous games, the Orange had the luxury of a sizable early lead, and Christmas was at the heart of that success. The senior continued his early-season dominance with a career-high 25 points to go with eight rebounds and 8-for-10 shooting in Syracuse’s (5-1) 72-48 victory over the Crusaders on Friday night before a crowd of 19,167 in the Carrier Dome.

He steadily provided offense, netting at least 15 points for the fifth time in six games, to negate the Orange’s 0-for-14 shooting from 3-point range Friday night.

“Rak’s playing great. He’s doing a great job inside,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “We didn’t even do a really good job of getting him the ball tonight and he had a very strong game.”

Christmas tallied SU’s first six points of the game, utilizing a pair of strong post moves to go with two free throws. He fouled Holy Cross’ Taylor Abt on an and-one that put the Crusaders up 8-7, but that was the final lead Holy Cross had all night.

The senior keyed a fast break with a long pass to forward Michael Gbinije for a basket, then got a bucket of his own that pushed SU’s lead to 20-9, the team’s first double-digit advantage of the night.

“If they don’t double me, I just go at the rim and that’s what I was doing,” Christmas said.

When help came, he found McCullough for a pair of buckets, including the uncontested slam, to give SU a 30-13 lead with 3:10 left in the half.

At halftime, Christmas trailed Holy Cross, 17-14, but SU was comfortably ahead, 39-17.

After the break, Christmas slammed home a dunk that was called off for a foul on the floor. But after the inbounds pass, point guard Kaleb Joseph found his big man cutting down the same lane for a thunderous dunk that counted and not only ended the Carrier Dome stand-and-clap, but enlivened the audience.

“Rak’s been hard to stop every game,” Joseph said. “That’s who he is. He’s a beast. Offensively, he’s strong, athletic. He can do it all.”

The Crusaders responded by connecting on five straight shots from the floor and four foul shots en route to slicing the Orange’s 22-point halftime lead down the middle, but Christmas asserted himself on the offensive end to end the threat.

After hitting two free throws to extend Syracuse’s lead to 52-37, Christmas again raised his arm before a shot fell. But this time, it was on the defensive end.

As Holy Cross guard Eric Green’s shot attempt misfired, Christmas was calling for the Hail Mary as he ran toward half court. He then beat the Crusaders down the floor to haul in Joseph’s long pass before flushing it, earning a standing ovation from the crowd.

He hit two foul shots to eclipse his previous career-high, and threw down another dunk off a pass from Joseph for good measure and a 62-40 SU lead.

Christmas exited the game at the 5:11 mark with a new career mark to his name, a pat on the chest from assistant coach Mike Hopkins and another standing ovation from the Carrier Dome faithful applauding his performance.

Much of the postgame chatter centered around Syracuse’s lack of perimeter shooting, but it didn’t need any to get by Holy Cross.

“I’m not thinking of how many points I score or anything like that,” Christmas said. “I’m just going out there, having fun with my teammates and just trying to help them.”

Published on November 28, 2014 at 9:20 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb