It seems like each season, coach Jim Boeheim plays just about every other college in the state of New York during November and December, but rarely Iona.

Maybe he doesn't want Syracuse to have to sweat out games like the Orange did in withstanding the Gaels 83-77 Saturday night at the Carrier Dome.

Kris Joseph's 21 points paced No. 5 Syracuse (11-0), while Brandon Triche scored 14, Dion Waiters 12 and Scoop Jardine 11.

Michael Glover tallied a game-high 25 points and Kyle Smyth added 22 for the Gaels (7-4), who had their seven-game winning streak snapped.

Iona trailed by as many as 15 points with less than five minutes to play, and wound up playing the Orange even, 46-46, in the second half after trailing 37-31 at halftime. But the Gaels made only 11 of the 37 3-pointers.

Syracuse is 4-0 all-time against Iona, and the programs hadn't played since the Orange escaped with a 63-61 win in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

The Orange were coming off a 100-43 rout of Colgate, which matched the largest margin of victory during Boeheim's 35-year tenure.