Shaking off a sluggish start, Syracuse men's basketball opened up its final tune-up game ahead of Atlantic Coast Conference play with an 80-56 victory over Cornell.

Tyler Lydon scored 15 of his 20 points in the first half, adding 10 rebounds and three assists for Syracuse (8-5). Tyus Battle scored 16 points after being inserted back into the Syracuse starting lineup. Battle and Lydon each hit four 3-pointers.

Andrew White III made half of his 12 points from the charity stripe, making up for an 0-4 night from behind the arc. The Orange outscored the Big Red by 20 points over the last 12 minutes of the opening period to take a 42-25 lead into halftime.

Cornell (3-9) led Syracuse 15-12 after hitting three of its first six 3-pointers. As the Big Red missed their next eight attempts, the Orange pulled away behind second chance points (plus-12) and scoring off turnovers (plus-10).

After sparingly seeing the court for much of his senior season, Tyler Roberson wowed the home crowd with a thunderous putback dunk in the first half. Roberson corralled a miss by Lydon with one hand, cocked the ball behind his head and flushed it.

Troy Whiteside led Cornell with 13 points and six assists. Four of the five Big Red starters are listed at 6-foot-4 or smaller, helping the Orange enjoy a 12-6 edge on offensive rebounds. Syracuse swiped 10 steals, made seven blocks, and held a 16-0 advantage on fastbreak points.

Syracuse lost five nonconference games for the first time in program history. St. John's beat Syracuse, 93-63, at the Carrier Dome on Dec. 21 for the worst home loss of the Jim Boeheim era. Syracuse opens ACC play by traveling to Boston College on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.