Jerami Grant soared through the air, caught Trevor Cooney’s miss and flushed it home with authority, screaming as he ran down court.

“I was going for the rebound opposite side,” C.J. Fair said during the postgame press conference, “and I just see Jerami almost jump over my head. That was a big play for us. It got us momentum and then we turned it up from there on defense.”

The monstrous throwdown started a 9-0 run that sparked No. 8 Syracuse (6-0) to a 92-81 win over California (5-1) in the semifinals of the EA Sports Maui Invitational on Tuesday night. Grant finished with a career-high 19 points before fouling out late in the second half. Tyler Ennis turned in the best game of his young college career with 28 points on 9-of-12 shooting and three steals and Trevor Cooney added 23 on five 3-pointers.

The Orange shot 53 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3 and 96 percent from the line.

Syracuse will face the winner of Baylor vs. Dayton on Wednesday night at 10 p.m. EST, looking to claim its third title in the tournament in as many tries.

Even with Grant, Cooney and Ennis’ sizzling performances, the win didn’t come easily for SU. Without starting forward Richard Solomon – who got poked in the eye against Arkansas – Cal still managed to outrebound the Orange and hang around.

“I thought watching Cal yesterday,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said during the postgame press conference, “that their team this year is much better than last year’s team.”

SU claimed a 10-6 lead early after a 3-pointer and layup from Ennis. But the Bears responded with a 13-4 run, capped by a Jabari Bird jumper.

Fair tied the game at 24 on a floater after snagging his own miss, but Cal’s Justin Cobbs drilled a jumper on the other end.

Baye Moussa Keita found Grant, who took one dribble and froze, letting multiple defenders fly over him. Then he laid it up and in, getting fouled in the process. The three-point play gave Syracuse a 37-33 lead. Then Ennis found Keita for an easy bucket.

Ennis finished with 11 at the half.  Grant chipped in 11 as well at that point and Fair scored 10 on 4-of-11 shooting. Both teams shot higher than 50 percent from the field in the first half and the game was tied at 41 heading into the break.

Ennis carried the Orange to start the second half. He finished in the paint after losing the ball momentarily and regaining control. After nailing a 3-pointer, he found Cooney, who added one of his own.

The freshman point guard Ennis controlled the entire pace of the game, penetrating the Cal defense with ease and finishing around the rim.

“He’s a very talented point guard,” Cooney said of Ennis during the postgame press conference. “His head’s always up, his eyes are up, and he ‘s going to come down and make the right play no matter what it is.”

Cooney hit another 3, this one a contested shot from the corner over Cal’s Ricky Kreklow.

“You make those shots and there is no defense for those shots,” Boeheim said.

But then Cooney helped Cal tie it up at 54 with two bad passes. The second sloppy turnover led to a Cobbs flush at the other end with 12:44 to go.

Despite shooting 9-of-9 from the line and greater than 50 percent from the field, the Orange only led by just 1 with 11:30 to go.

Grant hit two free throws and then contorted his body in the lane and got a layup to stick.

Then came his dunk, which immediately went viral and upped SU’s lead to five. A Cooney 3-pointer and layup paired with another layup by Ennis bumped the lead to 12.

“They basically were doing whatever they wanted and we were doing whatever we wanted opposite,” Fair said. “So it was coming down to who was going to stop who.”

Syracuse stopped Cal when it mattered, and from there it was smooth sailing in Lahaina, Hawaii, as SU remained undefeated on the season.

Published on November 26, 2013 at 9:15 pm

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass