For the first time all afternoon, the 30,021 fans who packed the Carrier Dome Saturday sat on their hands, as Notre Dame’s guard Kyle McAlarney nailed a 3-pointer to slice the Syracuse lead to just six.

Less than thirty seconds later, after back-to-back timeouts, Eric Devendorf responded with an open jumper at the top of the key that ignited the last of many runs, and propelled the No. 8 Orange to a decisive 93-74 win over No. 12 Notre Dame.

‘They cut it back again to six, we made two bad offensive plays and they ended up with open court 3’s because of it,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘And we needed a good possession and Eric hit the big shot.’

Devendorf’s jumper extended the lead to eight and sparked a 15-2 run during the final 3:19 of the game. Following the Devendorf make, Notre Dame didn’t even attempt a shot before the lead was back to double-digits. SU guard Andy Rautins came up with a steal before the Irish settled into an offensive set, and tossed it ahead to point guard Jonny Flynn for an easy layup.

Luke Harangody, the Big East’s leading scorer who scored a game-high 25 points, then tried to take matters into his own hands, but as he drove to the basket, Devendorf stripped the ball away and tacked on another point from the free throw line to make the lead 11.

‘Nobody was being selfish and everyone was playing to their strengths,’ Rautins said. ‘We got up and down the floor and people were hitting shots for us and (Devendorf) played big for us too. Just all around great effort from the guys.’

Four times in the second half and twice in the first, the Orange needed daggers like Devendorf’s to cripple any Irish momentum. The Irish shot 42 percent from deep in the second half, helping to erase double-digit deficits. But all four times the Orange responded. SU began the half on a 4-0 run and then followed it up with a 9-0 run. Midway through the second, SU began an 8-0 run and then finally closed out the game on a 15-2 spurt.

‘We knew they could cut the lead down really quick. So we just had to stay strong and make plays,’ SU center Arinze Onuaku, said. ‘…When the one through the five man shoots 3’s and makes plays, the lead is never safe. So you’ve got to keep building.’

The runs were needed because of Notre Dame’s outside prowess, but the Orange weren’t too shabby from deep as well, shooting 46 percent in the first half. It also finished the game shooting 55 percent from the field. And as the trio around the perimeter of Flynn, Rautins, and Devendorf, kept sinking long-range buckets, it allowed room inside for the trio of Rick Jackson, Paul Harris and Onuaku to dominate.

Jackson and Harris both finished with double-doubles. Jackson dropped 14, Harris scored 15 and both grabbed 10 rebounds. Defensively, the trio combined for eight blocks, seven of which came from Jackson and Onuaku. Together the six players all finished in double figures scoring 91 of the 93 points.

‘Everybody contributed we had tremendous balance and that was the difference in the game,’ Boeheim said. ‘We had just tremendous balance.’

Flynn controlled the offense throughout the game, tallying five of his nine assists during SU’s four runs in the second half. His scoring in the first half gave Syracuse the lead with 14:28 remaining, and SU never relinquished it.

But even after a 93-74 win over Notre Dame and on the heels of its worst loss all season, there was a mellow tone within the Syracuse locker room. That is, until highlights from the game appeared on the television set up around the room. The players that weren’t engulfed by the media cheered to celebrate the win and how they responded after a poor outing.

‘Well definitely you have to bounce back and in a tough league like this you have to bounce back,’ Flynn said. ‘Especially in the stretch we are going when you’re playing against all ranked teams. You don’t want to go 0-4 in a stretch like this. After really get beat and handed it to us by Georgetown you have put that loss behind you and I think we did that well.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on January 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm