Donte Greene pulled Jonny Flynn aside when he came off the court midway through the second half with Syracuse ahead by more than 30. Flynn had no idea what was happening.

‘When I came to the bench, he grabbed me and said, ‘Thanks for giving me my first dunk,” Flynn said. ‘But I didn’t know that. I’m thinking he has 26 points. He had to have a dunk before that.’

Nope. The alley-oop pass from Flynn to Greene with 15:14 left in the game was the freshman Greene’s first Syracuse slam and his 22nd and 23rd points of the night. Greene hit one more 3-pointer before Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim pulled him with plenty of time remaining in the game.

Greene scored 26 points in 23 minutes from all over the court in Syracuse’s 109-59 blowout of Le Moyne Wednesday night at the Carrier Dome. In the Orange’s two exhibition games, Greene has scored a total of 42 points.

Wednesday night, the 6-foot-11 Greene was not only hitting consistently from outside, but he also had the hook shot and short-range jumper working, too. He finished 10-for-15 from the field and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.

‘I was really trying to get more inside,’ Greene said. ‘First half of the first game, I started out just straight shooting, and I think I really shot myself out of the game. Second half, I came out and was cold. So tonight, I wanted to come out and start inside first and in the second half made my way outside.’

In Sunday’s exhibition opener against St. Rose, Greene scored all 16 of his points in the first half with three 3-pointers. During Syracuse’s 22-4 run to open up Wednesday night’s game in the second half, Greene scored 10 points.

Greene has already showed why he’s a tough matchup because of his ability to hit from deep, and it was evident against the Dolphins. Greene hit most of his 3s off penetration and kickout passes. But when he was given even the slightest amount of room by a Le Moyne defender on the outside, Greene wasn’t afraid to pull up and hit a couple of treys.

‘I was always taught that if the defender’s hands are down, the ball has got to go up,’ Greene said. ‘Every time they come up on me, their hands are down at their sides, so I’m putting it up. That’s what I was taught.’

After the Orange’s two exhibition contests against inferior and smaller-sized teams, it certainly appears as though Greene has the offensive part of his game figured out, but there are still aspects of his game to work on, Boeheim said.

‘I didn’t think anyone played defense in the paint in the first half,’ Boeheim said when specifically asked about Greene’s defense.

For every effortlessly drained 3-pointer Greene made, he was beaten inside the paint on defense in the first half. Whether it was biting on a head fake by Dolphins senior center Dan Cromwell or over-committing on a pass, leaving a Le Moyne big man wide open for an easy bucket, Greene made more than a few mistakes.

‘(We) always (want to work) in the paint,’ Greene said. ‘Just protecting the paint, not letting them get layups. I think they had 15 buckets in the first half, and 11 of them were layups. We have to really cut down on that.’

Still, Greene’s scoring almost all but made up for his defensive gaffes. That’s something a young run-and-gun Syracuse team will take this early in the season.

‘He’s been doing that all summer,’ sophomore Paul Harris said of Greene’s accurate shot. ‘He’s been shooting that good in practice since he got here, so I expect that out of Donte. Some games he’s going to be hot, but he keeps shooting because he’s a great shooter.’

And that chemistry between Greene and fellow freshman Flynn paid off in the slam that brought the crowd to its feet, chanting ‘Donte! Donte! Donte!’ Not a bad start.

‘It felt good,’ Greene said. ‘It was my first dunk of my SU career. It felt good. My man Jonny looks out for me, what can I say?’

Published on November 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm