SYRACUSE - Eric Devendorf played his first game without that big brace covering his left knee and Andy Rautins displayed an uncanny eye.

With Syracuse's two veteran guards back in the lineup for the first time in well over a year, the Orange easily beat crosstown foe Le Moyne 85-51 in their season opener on Sunday night.

Devendorf had 14 points and Rautins finished with 12 points and a career-high nine assists. Rautins missed all of last season with a left knee injury and Devendorf tore an ACL in the 10th game of the season and never played again.

“This is a new team and a new year. We expect great things,” said Devendorf, whose doctor gave him the OK to take off the brace in the past week. “It definitely felt good shedding the brace. It gives me a little bit more freedom out there.”

Jonny Flynn scored 17 points to lead five Syracuse players in double figures. Paul Harris had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Arinze Onuaku had 12 points.

Christopher Johnson had 16 points to lead the Dolphins, Laurence Ekperigin had 14 and seven rebounds, and Kevin Roth had 10 points.

It was the first game in 14 years between the teams and it was no contest from the outset. The Division II Dolphins could do little right in the opening half, committing 15 turnovers and shooting 8-for-34 (24 percent).

“It was our goal to come out aggressive,” Rautins said. “We're going to have to play a great Richmond team (on Tuesday night), and they're running the Princeton offense, so we wanted to stay disciplined and aggressive. I feel like we accomplished that. We had a few letdowns that we can't have on Tuesday.”

There weren't any at the outset. Syracuse scored the first 13 points before Ekperigin finally broke through with a twisting drive at 14:53. The Orange led 38-19 at halftime.

Devendorf hit a 3 to start the game and Harris had six points in the opening spurt. The undersized Dolphins, meanwhile, managed to get off only two shots, both missed 3s, before Ekperigin scored.

Without Devendorf and Rautins, Syracuse's top outside threats, the Orange often struggled from the perimeter in 2007-08. Although both are healthy again, they're still obviously rusty from the long layoffs. Syracuse was just 5-for-24 (20.8 percent) on 3-pointers as Devendorf missed his final four and Rautins hit only 3-of-9.

“My teammates did a great job of getting me open looks,” Rautins said. “I did convert on a couple of them, but next game will be much better because I've got my game legs now.”

“We've got to get better in everything,” coach Jim Boeheim said. “We've played all right, but we've got a lot of work to do. We have probably the toughest schedule of anybody in the country in the next two weeks.”

Including its two exhibitions, Syracuse has won three straight games against Division II teams, which means Tuesday night's game in the Carrier Dome against Richmond will bring much more intensity.

At least the Orange have the legs as they contemplate five more games before the end of the month.

Last season, Boeheim barely had a bench because of the injuries, forcing Flynn to play more than 39 minutes in Big East games.

On Sunday night, Flynn and Rautins each played a team-high 31 minutes as seven players logged at least 19 minutes. Freshman Kris Joseph had seven points in 22 minutes and classmate Mookie Jones had three points in 10 minutes.

“Playing for a win that counts is big for us,” Onuaku said. “We're still trying to get comfortable with each other. Coach said we were going to use this to get a comfortable flow, but he said come Tuesday everything gets a lot more serious. It's going to be Division I basketball.”

Orange 85

Dolphins 51