This time Syracuse started the game fine. After leading Charlotte by one point on Wednesday and trailing Canisius by one on Saturday, SU head coach Jim Boeheim was looking for a stronger effort in the first half.

Maybe it was too strong.

With two minutes left in the first half, Syracuse had limited Holy Cross to seven more turnovers (19) than points (12) and held an 18-point lead. But the Crusaders drained two 3’s in the final minute and a half to cut the Orange’s lead to 12 going into the locker room, a sign of things to come.

‘I knew at halftime it was going to be a game because we used a lot of energy defensively and I didn’t think we were going to be able to play with the same energy we had in the first half,’ Boeheim said.

The coach was right. The Orange did just enough to win Monday night, surviving foul trouble, poor shooting and a pesky Holy Cross team. Syracuse defeated the Crusaders, 72-64, in front of 19,235 at the Carrier Dome.

Senior forward Demetris Nichols scored 20 points or more for the third straight game, finishing with a team-leading 21 for No. 15 Syracuse (7-0). Paul Harris added 14 points and five rebounds off the bench and junior guard Josh Wright scored 13.

This would have been an upset if it wasn’t for Holy Cross’s (5-1) mediocre shooting from the field, thanks to the stifling Syracuse defense. The Crusaders shot 36.7 percent from the field-30.8 percent in the first half.

‘We know how the game goes,’ senior center Darryl Watkins said. ‘It was a good team we played tonight. If we spot them points we would have been down 20 and then we would have to pick ourselves up.’

In the first 18 minutes, the SU man-to-man defense finally gave Boeheim a noteworthy first-half performance. Still, just when SU thought it had shut the door, Holy Cross peeked its head through. The Crusaders outscored SU 7-1 in the final 1:25 of the first half.

‘We left them open twice and they made two 3’s,’ Boeheim said. ‘Otherwise we would have the best defensive half probably we’ve ever had here if it weren’t for those two guys open. Up to that point we didn’t leave anyone open.’

SU never really sealed the victory until the waning seconds of the game with free throws.

Playing its second game in three days, Syracuse looked sluggish defensively in the second half, which led to more foul calls and better opportunities for the Crusaders.

‘It was like two different games from the first half to the second half,’ Josh Wright said. ‘In the first half, defensively we were awesome. In the second half we were horrible. We’re going to have to look at both sides of the tape-first half and second half and learn from that.’

With 14:47 remaining in the game, Terrence Roberts committed his fourth foul, sending him to the bench. One minute later, Nichols was called for his fourth, which forced him to the sidelines. Without its leading scorer and any semblance of an inside game, Harris and Wright took over the offense.

Wright finished an astounding alley-oop from Eric Devendorf at 10:40 of the second half to put the Orange back up by 15.

‘I told (Devendorf) the play before that it would be open,’ Wright said. ‘He told me, ‘Go get it or you’re going to get taken out of the game.’ I said, ‘Just throw it.’ And he threw it up there.’

Syracuse used its free throw shooting win the game down the stretch. It shot 26-for-35 from the charity stripe and 9-of-12 in the final five minutes of the game.

The Crusaders got as close as four points with 17 seconds left, but Devendorf and Nichols made four free throws for eight-point win.

Syracuse will face its toughest test thus far on Saturday when mid-major power No. 17 Wichita State visits the Orange at 7 p.m.

Said Boeheim: ‘We know Wichita State is one of the best teams in the country coming in here and it will be a tremendous challenge for us Saturday.’

Published on November 27, 2006 at 12:00 pm