While Tyler Roberson continues to assert himself on the offensive end, there’s one part of his game he’s still hesitant to use — his midrange jumper.

But for the Syracuse sophomore forward, there’s a simple adjustment to make when those shots don’t fall.

“I took it a few times today and it didn’t go in,” Roberson said. “Once I knew it wasn’t really going in, I just looked to attack.”

It paid off, as Roberson set a career-high in scoring with 19 points while grabbing 10 rebounds to help the Orange (16-9, 7-5 Atlantic Coast) keep pace with No. 4 Duke (22-3, 9-3) before ultimately losing, 80-72, on Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

Roberson’s role in the SU frontcourt has evolved throughout the season as a result of injuries to DaJuan Coleman and Chris McCullough. Though his production hasn’t been totally consistent, his aggression on the offensive end is on an upward spike.

“When I was attacking, good things were happening,” Roberson said, “so I just kept going to it and it was working out for me.”

Michael Gbinije was blanketed. Trevor Cooney was face-guarded. Rakeem Christmas had the attention of Duke’s biggest defender, Jahlil Okafor.

The combination created plenty of space for Roberson to supply Syracuse’s frontcourt with plenty of production.

“They’re leaving him,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said, “and he’s got to take the ball to the basket when he can and he did it. He had a tremendous game.”

After scoring SU’s first points with a layup, Roberson took a dump-off pass from Christmas underneath the basket and threw down a dunk to put the Orange up 14-8. He then added a late floater from the block to head into halftime as SU’s second-leading scorer.

Roberson took a feed from Gbinije to flush another dunk, and four minutes later cleaned up his own missed floater with an aggressive chase after the rebound and a power dribble to clear space before putting it back in.

Roberson added two more layups — including an and-one, drawing a fourth foul on Okafor — and tacked on some free throws. His 10 points and his six rebounds, including four off SU misses, led Syracuse in the second half.

Although his 19 points were more than he had scored in his previous three games combined, his career night wasn’t enough to upend the Blue Devils.

But it was another step in the right direction as Roberson continues to pick his spots to be effective.

“(He’s) just finishing better, getting open and just going after loose balls,” Gbinije said. “He did a good job of getting some second chances for us. We need them down there.”

Published on February 16, 2015 at 12:17 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb