Miami was coming back, having stormed out of the second half with a 19-9 run and a chance for one of the biggest comebacks in college basketball this season.

Gerry McNamara, then a quiet 5-for-7 shooting, decided the offensive slump ruining the Syracuse men’s basketball team recently – but even more concentrated on McNamara – would come to an end.

McNamara turned a Miami charge into a baby-sized challenge. He turned a crumbling 13-point lead into a growing 22-point blowout. He broke out of his slump in a big way, knocking down three 3s in two minutes and forcing Miami to call a timeout.

McNamara is once again hitting the shot some feared had left him. After scoring 23 points on 8-for-12 shooting – including 5-for-7 from 3-point range – McNamara may have rediscovered his golden touch. When McNamara and Syracuse host Notre Dame tonight at 7 at the Carrier Dome, many will discover if Saturday’s performance foreshadowed the remainder of this season or acted as an aberration for continued struggles.

‘I would hope I don’t fall back into a slump,’ McNamara said. ‘People have bad games. People don’t shoot the ball well sometimes. That was the case. You just gotta move on. You live. You live to shoot another day.’

Certainly, McNamara has been doing that. The sophomore continued firing – just not well. He shot only a 26.6 percent clip for the six games prior to the Miami game. McNamara’s touch faded. Soon his fall-away 3s clanked off the rim when they would usually fall. Suddenly simply coming off a screen to shoot didn’t look like enough. In the preseason, coaches predicted McNamara needed to become a threat to penetrate the lane in order to avoid a sophomore slump. That appeared to be coming true.

The trouble started during a 2-for-10 shooting night in SU’s 74-67 loss on Jan. 20 to Seton Hall. McNamara was slowed by a groin injury on his tough night. McNamara said he could ‘barely move’ at halftime because of it.

McNamara appeared to be on the way back after a 26-point night vs. Virginia Tech, but a 2-for-17 shooting night at Connecticut followed, and questions about McNamara’s shot surfaced.

‘You gotta put those games behind you,’ McNamara said. ‘That’s not something I want to carry with me for every game. That was one of my worst games I’ve ever played in my life. You come out, you work hard in practice, and you try to carry it over.’

That’s exactly what McNamara will try to do tonight against the Fighting Irish. McNamara got back his touch as SU beat the Irish earlier this year, 81-70, on the road.

But with Syracuse’s offense still uncertain, a home loss is hardly improbable.

‘We beat them before, but they’re a different team now,’ center Craig Forth said. ‘We’re a different team now. So we gotta respond pretty well.’

Indeed, Notre Dame is completely different. Center Torin Francis – who averages 14.8 points and 8.8 rebounds – is out indefinitely with a disc injury in his lower back. Without the 6-foot-11, 252-pound power forward down low, SU forward Hakim Warrick – who shot 11 for 11 on Saturday – could have another big game.

‘They’ve got some other players in there, too,’ Warrick said. ‘But it’s definitely going to be a tough road for them, especially with (Francis) being one of their best players.

‘They definitely gonna be a lot hungrier coming in. They’re coming off two wins as well, so it’ll be a tough game.’

One of Notre Dame’s wins was an 80-74 win over preseason No. 1 Connecticut. Syracuse isn’t overlooking Notre Dame’s ability to beat a big name.

‘Notre Dame, they feel like they should’ve won our first game,’ McCroskey said. ‘It was close. Obviously, when a team loses to another team and they get another chance, they’re gonna want to come out and play a lot harder. They’ve got a lot of shooters. We know them. They

Published on February 15, 2004 at 12:00 pm