A familiar sight in the Carrier Dome this season has been the arm Rakeem Christmas raises after a thunderous dunk.

On Tuesday night he often held up both arms and drew reactions from the Carrier Dome crowd, but for different reasons.

The Syracuse big man couldn’t avoid his early-season nemesis of foul trouble and fouled out after just 23 minutes of playing time with 1:51 left in the Orange’s (14-5, 5-1 Atlantic Coast) 69-61 victory over Boston College (8-9, 0-5).

Christmas fouled out for the first time since Dec. 20, played his fewest amount of minutes since Dec. 22, and produced his fewest amount of points since Nov. 20. Before Tuesday night, he had only been whistled for four fouls twice in his previous eight games.

But the referees didn’t believe Christmas was so innocent when he kept his arms extended up after the whistle, trying to prove he hadn’t committed a foul, as his head coach and thousands of fans complained to the officials.

“I don’t think he fouled the guy — twice,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “He gets beaten up every game and that’s two or three touch fouls out there. But this is the first time that’s happened in a long time.”

Yet when Christmas was on the floor, he did what he could to help SU get past the Eagles — scoring 12 points on an efficient 5-of-8 shooting to go with seven rebounds.

It took Syracuse 4:44 to net its first field goal of the game, and it was a Christmas hook shot from the right block that halted the stand-and-clap. SU chipped away at the Eagles’ early lead, and another Christmas basket from the post drove the Orange ahead.

He also ran down an off-line entry pass from Tyler Roberson, banked in a shot through contact and hit the ensuing free throw. Then a drop-step from the right side, lofting another shot in off the glass and throwing his hands up to ask the officials for a foul.

But from then on out, when he put his hands up and looked to the referees it was not quite in the same way.

Christmas logged just eight minutes in the second half after being called for his fourth foul 3:48 in. When he returned he did so for barely more than four minutes, but earned himself another and-one basket to help the Orange pull away from the Eagles.

Said forward Michael Gbinije: “Rak is going to be Rak, even if his minutes got limited to foul trouble.”

Published on January 21, 2015 at 12:00 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb