With two minutes left in last night’s game, Josh Pace dribbled confidently across midcourt. With his body relaxed and his chin up, the freshman guard dissected the West Virginia defense.

Spotting his lane, Pace cut to the basket, leapt into the air and prepared for a two-handed dunk.

No way could he miss another slam without a defender in sight. Not after he missed a nearly identical opportunity two nights ago at Rutgers.

But Kueth Duany knew what was coming.

“I thought he should have layed it in,” Duany said. “We knew he was getting tired. I was like, ‘Man, you should have just layed it in. You could’ve had more points.’ “

Duany was right. The ball bounced off the rim and fell into West Virginia hands.

But Pace didn’t hang his head in shame. A missed dunk would not ruin the best night in the young guard’s career, a night when he would lead Syracuse to its 76-64 victory. So, after the botched dunk, he sprinted to grab a defensive rebound on the other end.

“(Josh) took the ball to the basket and he won the ballgame for us,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “He played almost perfect.”

Almost. With 12 points and five boards, the dunking debacle was the only black mark on Pace’s stat sheet.

With 5:53 remaining, Syracuse led by just one, but Pace would have no part of another SU fold. He was too busy unravelling the West Virginia defense, floating a layup through the hoop to extend the lead to three. Just over a minute later, another Pace lay-up upped the lead to five.

Disaster averted, thanks to an unlikely hero.

“I’m way more comfortable than in the beginning of the season,” Pace said. “It was hard trying to fit in with all the freshmen, DeShaun (Williams) and Preston (Shumpert). I’m just picking my spots and playing my role right now.”

That role will likely expand if Pace continues his improved play. With a few exceptions — like an 18-minute stint against Georgetown — Pace has not been one of Boeheim’s first options off the bench.

But when James Thues, the only pure point guard on the roster, shot 0 for 5 and missed a slam of his own to open the game, Boeheim turned to Pace. The freshman responded by running the offense efficiently.

“If I can get the ball, I look for our scorers,” Pace said. “If I have the opportunity to score, I just score.”

And when he scores, he does it with the flare of a savvy veteran. Taking the ball under the basket and laying it up over his shoulder, Pace has patented the reverse lay-up as his signature move.

As for the two-handed dunk, well, the jury’s still out on that. His teammates may have cringed when, with 29 seconds remaining, Pace stole the ball from Mountaineer Jonathan Hargett and started a fast break.

With the closest West Virginia player 10 feet behind him, all 16,761 on hand at the Carrier Dome knew what was coming. This time Pace slammed the ball through the hoop, a loud exclamation from the quiet freshman.

“He was the reason we won this game,” Duany said. “He brings a lot of energy. That’s exactly what we expect when we check him in.”

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Published on February 4, 2002 at 12:00 pm