Orange Win Is Boeheim's 600th

Syracuse's Jim Boeheim said he'll wait a few months to enjoy his 600th career win. Just advancing in the NCAA tournament was enough for one night.

Damone Brown had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Preston Shumpert added 18 points as Boeheim reached another coaching milestone with a 79-69 victory over Hawaii on Friday night in the first round of the Midwest Regional.

"Well, it's the tournament, that's the significance of it - winning that first game," Boeheim said. "Of all the games I've seen, it seems more underdogs have won than favorites. That's unusual. There's just been so many."

The fifth-seeded Orangemen (25-8) will face fourth-seeded Kansas in the second round. The Jayhawks beat Cal State Northridge 99-75.

Boeheim, in his 25th year as the head coach at his alma mater, is 600-207. Syracuse fans held up placards reading "600" and chanted "6-0-0! 6-0-0!" in the final minute.

"I really just wanted to advance," Boeheim said. "I'll think about 600 over the summer."

Syracuse was efficient on offense, pounding the ball down to its big men while blending in a variety of slashes through the lane and fast-break baskets. The Orangemen hit 52 percent of their shots.

"Coach said if I get my shot, take it," Brown said. "Every time I took it, smething good happened."

Syracuse scored the first four points and never trailed, leading by as many as 13 points in each half.

"With Hawaii playing so well, I thought we had to be efficient on offense and we did that," Boeheim said.

Hawaii (17-14), winners of the Western Athletic Conference tournament, were undone by the same thing that had gotten them into the NCAAs. The Rainbow Warriors had hit at least 10 3-pointers in four of their previous six games, but missed their first eight and ended up 7-of-26.

Hawaii shot 39 percent from the field.

"Our zone's a little more flexible than most," Boeheim said. "If we play it the right way, they're not going to get a lot of 3s. That's what happened tonight. We didn't give them a lot of good ones."

Hawaii trailed 31-18 with four minutes left in the first half and cut the Syracuse lead to four with a 13-4 run.

But the Orangemen, winners of five of their last six games, scored the next nine points five by Shumpert and four by Brown to push the lead to 44-31.

The Warriors drew as close as seven points on a three-point play with 1:31 left by Troy Ostler, who led the way with 21 points.

"Coming out we were cold. We just kept trying to force it in. It didn't happen," Ostler said. "We finally buckled down and tried getting it inside and kicking it back out. That's when we made our run, but by that time I think it was a little too late."

Griffin hit three free throws and Brown added two to push the lead back to 12.

"I'm doing a great job of picking my spots," Griffin said. "With Damone and Preston spreading the floor, it gave me some chances to go to the basket."

Mindaugas Burneika added 12 points, Predrag Savovic 12 and Carl English 10 for Hawaii, making its third NCAA appearance.

Savovic, averaging 17.8 points, never got untracked against Syracuse's pressure zone defense. He was 4-of-12 from the field.

The Rainbow Warriors lost to Syracuse under almost identical circumstance the last time they played in the tournament. In 1994, they were seeded 12th and lost to the fifth-seeded Orangemen 92-78 in the opening round.

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