PISCATAWAY, N.J.– It was the perfect start to one of Syracuse’s best comebacks over Rutgers on Monday night.

Using a full-court press, Syracuse forced four steals in a five-possession span and outscored Rutgers 9-0 in the first 93 seconds of the second half en route to an 86-84 victory.More than anything, Syracuse’s press jumpstarted the comeback. Instead of trailing by 18 at halftime, Syracuse was down by just eight with 18 minutes left in the game.

It was almost like the 36-point SU first half never happened. Almost.

‘(The press) changed the game,’ Syracuse senior Hakim Warrick said. ‘That won the game for us. We got some big plays off our press. We forced them into some plays and changed the pace.’

Warrick started the second half with a three-point play. Syracuse stayed on the Rutgers end and set up its press. Using as many as three players on one Rutgers player, Syracuse forced numerous turnovers.

Syracuse senior Josh Pace forced a steal on the next possession and went in for an easy lay-up. Gerry McNamara added a steal and fed Warrick for a basket. On the next possession, Louie McCroskey picked up a loose ball at mid-court and went in for a layup, cutting Rutgers’ lead to eight.

‘You couldn’t paint a picture any better than that,’ Warrick said of the quick start to the second half. ‘That’s the way you want to go out and start the half.’

Syracuse trimmed at the Rutgers lead slowly from that point, finally taking the lead with 7:43 remaining, when Pace converted a lay-up off a McCroskey steal.

‘It was really like going into the second half down by 10,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘It was a great comeback.’

Sophomore center Darryl Watkins’ presence for eight minutes – most noticeably in the first part of the second half, when Syracuse pressed – proved beneficial. Watkins stayed behind and guarded the Rutgers basket while Rutgers’ big men did nothing to help.

By the time the Scarlet Knights had stopped the bleeding, the lead had already been cut by more than half.

‘We wanted to get the game going,’ Boeheim said. ‘We made a couple of great steals. You don’t expect to get a lot of steals in the press, especially on the road against a three-guard offense.’

Boeheim said the full-court pressure was the best he’s seen in his 29 years at Syracuse.

He intended to keep the full-court pressure, but his team started tiring. So, instead of reverting to the customary 2-3 zone that Rutgers thrashed for six first-half 3-pointers, Syracuse switched to a man-to-man defense.

Rutgers hit just three 3s in the second half and shot just 28 percent overall, connecting on only seven field goals for the entire second half.

The 30 points allowed to Rutgers in the second half was evidence enough that Syracuse’s defensive switch paid dividends.

‘When you think Syracuse for the last 15 to 20 years, you think 2-3 zone,’ Syracuse junior guard Billy Edelin said. ‘I think that threw them off. It gave us a good little start and got us going in the second half.’

Said Boeheim: ‘At halftime this was looking like a 25-point game the wrong way. And I wouldn’t have been surprised.’

Published on January 24, 2005 at 12:00 pm