MILWAUKEE – Rick Jackson was asked what was going through his mind as he walked to the free throw line with Syracuse down one with only 13 seconds remaining in regulation Saturday. Not an easy shot to make, considering the 19,144 fans, the most fans ever to see a college basketball game in Wisconsin, were trying desperately to force a miss.

As Jim Boeheim walked through the locker room to talk to his point guard Jonny Flynn, the head coach took a detour and answered the question before his forward could speak.

‘Pray, pray. He was praying it in,’ said Boeheim, with his arms flailing about. ‘…I don’t know how it went in.’

Perhaps. But the shot fell to send the game to overtime, where the No. 25 Orange (23-8, 11-7 Big East) pulled out an 86-79 thriller over No. 13 Marquette (23-8, 12-6) at the Bradley Center.

Syracuse finishes its regular season on a four-game winning streak and secured the No. 6 seed in the Big East tournament. SU will play the winner of the Seton Hall-South Florida game Wednesday at 9 p.m. at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Orange has beaten both potential opponents earlier this season.

To get there, the Orange had to get through a tough Golden Eagles squad on the road, and it took an extra five minutes. Point guard Jonny Flynn started the scoring in overtime with a layup for two of the 20 points Flynn scored after halftime. He finished with a team-high 24 points and six assists.

His co-pilot in the backcourt, Andy Rautins, finished the job in OT that Flynn started. The shooting guard scored seven of the Orange’s final nine points, including an acrobatic layup to put SU up by three with 1:24 left – reminiscent to plays normally executed by guard Eric Devendorf.

‘When I took it in, I saw (Arinze Onuaku) dive, so I figured if I take it to the basket and at least get it off the rim, he’d be able to clean it up,’ Rautins said. ‘But I’ve been watching (Devendorf) and taking notes. It was a big play for us, though.’

Syracuse needed the big plays down the stretch because of a couple of near-catastrophic events. With 4:52 left in the regulation, the Orange had a seven-point cushion after Flynn made a jumper from the free throw line. After Marquette made two free throws, it implemented a full court press defense against the Orange, and the wheels began to fall off.

Devendorf tried to break the press himself, only to have Jerel McNeal pick his pocket and turn the steal into a layup for two of his game-high 25 points.

The ensuing inbound pass went to Flynn, who was immediately trapped by two Marquette defenders, causing SU’s point guard to throw the ball up for grabs. Rick Jackson and Paul Harris both went for it, but only hindered each other’s ability to catch the ball and tipped it out of bounds. It eventually led to another Marquette basket off an offensive rebound, which ignited a 6-0 run with every bucket coming on the offensive glass. Marquette outscored the Orange, 33-14, in second-chance points.

‘It was one of those games where you just have to dig it out in overtime,’ Boeheim said. ‘We hung in there. Whenever you blow a game like that, it’s always tough going into overtime.’

Marquette took the lead from the opening tip of the game but led for a total of 20 seconds in the first half. In the second half, the Orange pushed its lead up to 10 before the Golden Eagles stormed back. Syracuse eventually made a run that held off Marquette for good with the Big East tournament looming.

But that’s not until Wednesday, giving SU plenty of time to relish in this upset win.

‘It was a back and forth battle all day. Shot after shot,’ Flynn said. ‘We would miss they would make. We would make they would miss. It was just a fun game to play in.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on March 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm