WASHINGTON – Just more than a month ago, Devante Gardner barreled his way around the middle of Syracuse’s zone, using his size and his deceptively quick feet to get to the rim. The Orange couldn’t stop him inside, and Gardner finished with 26 points in a game where he essentially overmatched Syracuse’s centers.

The Orange has a second chance at limiting the damage the 6-foot-8, 290-pound Gardner inflicts upon its big men, and that could be critical in Syracuse beating Marquette in the Elite 8 on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Off the bench, Gardner gives the Golden Eagles a spark and a scoring punch. Despite his size, Gardner’s athletic and agile, and combined with his thick frame, he can be an overwhelming force in the paint.

“He’s big and he knows how to use his feet,” Syracuse center Baye Moussa Keita said. “He’s really good with his footwork. He is big and athletic, and knows how to use his body.”

Two days after shutting down one of the best centers in the game in Indiana’s Cody Zeller, Keita and the Orange have one more standout center they have to control. Through 34 games, Gardner’s averaging 11.4 points, which is second on the team, and he makes 58.2 percent of his attempts.

Making matters even more challenging is his success at the free-throw line. Gardner is hitting 84.4 percent of his shots from the stripe.

As opposed to Zeller, who was adept at catching the ball in the high post and quickly passing back out to the arc, Gardner’s more apt to use his body and knock into his defenders all the way to the basket. He creates space for himself to either make a basket, or grab a rebound.

Back on Feb. 25, Marquette rode Gardner’s broad shoulders to a win over Syracuse. Gardner scored 26 points, made all seven of his attempts from the field, and grabbed eight rebounds, which were evenly split on the offensive and defensive glass.

As a team, the Golden Eagles finished the game with 15 second-chance points.

“We’ve just got to try and get around him, not fight with him as much,” Syracuse center Rakeem Christmas said, “and if he gets the ball in there, wall him up because he’s not going to try to jump you, he’s a big dude, we’ve just got to wall him up.”

But Gardner said he doesn’t expect to have an easy repeat performance. Gardner said Friday he thinks the Orange will change the defense it uses against him and won’t make it as easy for him to score.

But there’s nothing Syracuse can do about this size. That’s how he makes room to go to work near the rim.

“Bang into them, because they’re so small, bang into them,” Gardner said. “They’ll back up so I can get my shot off.”

Marquette forward Juan Anderson said the first time he saw Gardner was on an official visit to the MU campus. At first, he figured he’d be slow on the court because of his size.

But Gardner was anything but slow-footed.

“But don’t let it fool you. Davante, he’s really fast, quick on his feet,” Anderson said. “The way I look at Davante, he’s like an overweight 3-man, 2-guard. He passes the ball really well, he’s really skilled. A lot of people sleep on him, that’s their mistake.”

Syracuse also has to worry about sending him to the free-throw line. With his 84.4 percent clip from the line, Gardner can do much of his scoring there. Against the Orange last month, he went 12-of-13 from the line, and said he was mad at himself for missing one.

He said growing up, his parents constantly stressed the importance of hitting free throws. The focus wasn’t on making layups or outside shots, but on free throws. Gardner has 16 games this season where he’s hit at least five free throws, and three games where he drained more than 10.

Still, the main focus for Syracuse is to keep Gardner out of the paint. Forward Jerami Grant said that hurt the Orange last month at Marquette, and it could hurt again Saturday if the problem isn’t corrected.

“He’s definitely lighter on his feet than you would think,” Grant said. “He’s a big guy but he can still move like smaller big guys. It’s definitely kind of deceptive. We’ve just to keep him out of the lane.”

Published on March 29, 2013 at 5:02 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman