While the ball rolled toward the center of the rim, Rakeem Christmas’ leg hung in the air.

When his shot dropped to the sound of a whistle, he finished his leg kick and threw his fist around to celebrate his bucket and the free-throw attempt that was next on his plate.

“I don’t mind being in this situation,” Christmas said. “I get the ball a lot. I can make plays down there. I can find my teammates. I just want to help my team win.”

Once again, he did just that. The senior’s career-high 35 points were the driving force Tuesday night as Syracuse (13-4, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) slugged out an 86-83 overtime victory over Wake Forest (9-9, 1-4) before a raucous audience of 23,367 in the Carrier Dome.

Christmas’ 35 points were tied for the most for a Syracuse player since Demetris Nichols in 2006-07. He’s emerged as one of the ACC’s most dominant post presences, even if he hasn’t made noise on the national stage quite yet.

“If he keeps playing like this, I think that’s a little different,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said, referring to Christmas being under the radar, before pointing to his stat sheet at the podium. “I think he’s capable of this. I really do.”

Demon Deacons forward Konstantinos Mitoglou came off the bench to nail 10-of-13 shots, including four 3s and his first eight shot attempts. He sparked WFU while forward Devin Thomas — who had dropped an average of 22 points in his first three ACC games — finished with just 11 and fouled out in overtime.

Three minutes into the game, Boeheim frustratedly smacked his hands together twice after Christmas missed an elbow jumper — the kinds of shots that Christmas admitted later his head coach doesn’t want him to take.

But after that, Christmas went back to dominating the interior like he has all year to negate Mitoglou’s constant jabs at the SU defense.

The senior forward side-stepped Wake Forest forward Cornelius Hudson to flush a one-handed dunk on a pick-and-roll with Kaleb Joseph. Christmas netted 10 of the Orange’s first 21 points to help keep pace with the Demon Deacons, who took a one-point lead into halftime.

ACC defenses have come up empty trying to provide an answer to defend the big man, and Wake Forest was no different. The senior showed off his ability to seal any defender not just in any spot on the inside, but to make the right call with the ball when the double team came.

He hit a left-handed baby hook to start the second half, banked in a basket turning toward the baseline away from a double team to score his next points and, starting from the short corner, got his and-one bucket to fall from a tough angle.

“When you have a guy like that, you know that you’ve got to give him the ball in situations,” guard Trevor Cooney said, “and you’ve got to constantly look for him, and we’re doing that. And he’s doing the rest.”

Still, Wake Forest’s offense kept up with the Orange, as Hudson canned a 3 with 14.1 seconds to send the game to overtime tied at 71.

Aside from three free throws, Christmas did not score from the floor in the final seven minutes of regulation.

But overtime was all his.

From the left block, he took one dribble and floated in two points for a 74-73 lead. Thomas drew WFU within one, 79-78, with 1:19 left, but SU’s inbounds passes found the hands of Christmas, who calmly stepped to the line and iced Syracuse’s victory with six free throws.

The Carrier Dome faithful held its breath when Hudson’s three-quarters-length heave spun in and out of the rim as the overtime buzzer rung.

But then it rejoiced, and Christmas calmly jogged off the court where his play enabled the culminating frenzy that now surrounded him.

Said Cooney: “He’s been like that all year. He’s our guy.”

Published on January 14, 2015 at 12:37 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb