National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Syracuse 81, Montana 34
When: 9:57 PM ET, Thursday, March 21, 2013
Where: HP Pavilion, San Jose, California
Officials: # Mike Scyphers, # Bert Smith, # Bob Staffen
Attendance: 17997

Syracuse 81, Montana 34:
Brandon Triche went 5-for-6 from the field en route to 20 points and added four steals as the fourth-seeded Orange cruised past the Grizzlies in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at San Jose, Calif.

C.J. Fair added 13 points and Michael Carter-Williams recorded nine assists and eight rebounds for Syracuse (27-9), which will take on No. 12 seed California in Saturday's third round. The Orange recorded the largest margin of victory by a No. 3 seed or lower, breaking Virginia Commonwealth's record of 46 set earlier Thursday.

Kareem Jamar, Jordan Gregory, Spencer Coleman and Jake Wiley each scored five points for No. 13 seed Montana (25-7). The Grizzlies shot 20.4 percent and committed 17 turnovers in their worst loss of the season.

Fair scored the first six points for the Orange and had nine during a 20-4 run to begin the contest. Montana went 1-for-10 from 3-point range in the first half and went into the locker room trailing 38-15.

The Grizzlies made one field goal in the first 10:35 of the second half as Syracuse pushed the lead out to 62-20. Mike Weisner ended the drought with a 3-pointer for Montana but the Orange kept pushing and got the lead up to 76-28 with 5:30 left before letting off the gas.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Syracuse has won its first NCAA Tournament game in each of the last five seasons. … The Orange just missed setting a school record for largest NCAA Tournament win. They beat Brown 101-52 in the first round in 1986. … Big Sky champion Montana has lost its first game in each of its last three appearances in the NCAA Tournament. The Grizzlies’ last win came against Nevada in the first round in 2006.
Top Game Performances
 
Montana   Syracuse
Spencer Coleman 5 Scoring Brandon Triche 20
Spencer Coleman 1 Assists Michael Carter-Williams 9
Will Cherry 5 Rebounds Michael Carter-Williams 8
Keron DeShields 3 Free Throws Made Brandon Triche 8
Will Cherry 3 Steals Brandon Triche 4
Michael Weisner 2 Blocks Rakeem Christmas 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Montana 34 20.4 4-31 8-12 5 29 6 5 17
Syracuse 81 51.9 5-11 22-31 21 40 5 12 8