PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Janice Mallory stood a row behind Demetris Nichols in the now-empty Dunkin’ Donuts Center and watched him field questions from the New England television media.

She couldn’t help but talk about her son.

Her son, the one who started 15 games as a freshman and has made leaps from then to now.

Her son, the one who leads Syracuse and the Big East in scoring.

Her son, the one who saved Syracuse’s season with one incredible shot.

‘He’s doing what he’s supposed to do,’ Mallory said. ‘He’s smart. He’s talented. He works hard.’

And while the reporters interviewed Nichols about the shot, about the Tournament bubble, about what it will feel like playing his final game in the Carrier Dome tonight, Mallory looked around and saw family. Fifteen members of the Nichols family made the trip from Boston to see Demetris play close to home. He was thinking of them all along.

‘They are my motivation,’ Nichols said. ‘I play for them. I play for myself. I can see them in the crowd and it just gives me a little more spark.’

Nichols didn’t disappoint his family – or the city of Syracuse for that matter.

He wanted the ball. Jim Boeheim designed a play for him. He called for it even before Paul Harris turned around after receiving the inbounds pass. He waved his arm in the air while in the corner. Then he ran around the defense, took the ball and drilled a fade-away 3-pointer with 37.1 seconds left.

Crisis averted. Season preserved.

Aside from the main event that is Syracuse’s quest for an NCAA Tournament berth, Nichols is having the best senior season statistically for a Syracuse player since Hakim Warrick averaged 21.4 points and 8.6 rebounds a game in 2005. Time and time again, even if he isn’t shooting the ball at his best, Nichols has bailed Syracuse out.

Magically, this team has pulled off four-straight wins and looks primed to escape the bubble, much thanks to Nichols.

The St. John’s game was mystifying. South Florida, not so much. The last two games against Connecticut and Saturday at Providence are almost mirror images of how much Nichols means to Syracuse.

Nichols shot an unimpressive 7-of-20 in both contests but made the shots the Orange needed. Against UConn, Nichols scored five points in a row to halt a late Huskies run. Saturday’s shot, as amazing as it was, came as no surprise to much of the Syracuse basketball team, or to Mallory.

‘That’s Demetris,’ Andy Rautins said. ‘Being a senior and coming down the stretch in the closing minutes of the game. He comes through like he always does for us.’

‘He’s capable of it,’ Darryl Watkins said. ‘It’s not unbelievable to me. It’s his last year he’s got to show what he came here to do.’

Perhaps most telling was what Paul Harris said about Nichols outside the locker room after the game.

‘I just say if they don’t know him, now they know him,’ he said.

Nichols’ Senior Night is tonight and he heads into the game playing the best basketball of his career.

‘He’s a great example as someone who he struggled his freshman year, in-and-out, played some,’ Boeheim said. ‘In-and-out his sophomore year. His answer to that is, ‘I’m going to work harder’. Those are the guys who are successful. The guys who give up and leave are never successful.’

Nichols said he feels like he’s undervalued. He attributes that to the fact Syracuse isn’t ranked and hasn’t played consistently this season. He hasn’t been mentioned prominently among the candidates for Big East Player of the Year, despite leading the conference in scoring and his late-game heroics.

Maybe that change is beginning tonight, Senior Night, in front of a national primetime audience on ESPN against a Georgetown team that will be ranked in the top 10, with Syracuse still needing another win to get in.

‘Good things happen to good people, so I know my time is going to come,’ Nichols said.

Nichols will be able to celebrate his four years at Syracuse on Monday with his family in the crowd again. They’ll be coming to Syracuse tonight after witnessing their Demetris’ biggest shot of his career Saturday, his mother included.

‘I’m going to be a wreck on Monday,’ Mallory said Saturday. ‘No cameras on me.’

But the cameras can shine all they want on her son. He’s earned it. He wants it.

Matt Gelb is an asst. sports editor for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. You can hear him or the other men’s basketball beat writers on 570-WSYR after every Syracuse road game. E-mail him at magelb@gmail.com.

Published on February 25, 2007 at 12:00 pm