Jonny Flynn struggled for much of Tuesday night’s NIT Tip-Off contest against St. Joseph’s, and Tasheed Carr kept letting him know about it.

The St. Joe’s junior guard had spent all game trying to get under the skin of Syracuse’s freshman point guard, who in the first 39 minutes-plus had only managed two points and zero field goals.

So as Paul Harris stood on the free-throw line to attempt to ice the game that Flynn had won just seconds earlier with a 3-pointer to break a tie in the game’s dying moments, Flynn went up to Carr to get the last word.

‘The whole game, he’d been talking to me, saying, ‘I heard all this stuff about you,” said Flynn, who scored an SU debut record 28 points in SU’s win over Siena Monday. ‘I just told him, ‘When the time comes, I’m gonna hurt you. I’m gonna really put the dagger through you.”

Flynn once again played hero for Syracuse Tuesday night, hitting a game-winning 3-pointer with 5.3 seconds left to lead Syracuse to a 72-69 win in front of 16,946 at the Carrier Dome. The basket was the only field goal for Flynn, who scored just five points in 36 minutes for Syracuse.

The teams traded a free throw each after Flynn’s shot before St. Joseph’s couldn’t get a desperation shot off in time at the buzzer.

With the win, Syracuse booked a date next Wednesday at Madison Square Garden when it will face last year’s national runner-up Ohio State in the NIT Tip-Off semifinals.

Flynn’s basket proved a fitting end to an exciting, evenly matched contest in which Syracuse and St. Joe’s traded long runs throughout the entire game. Both teams trailed by as much as 10 points at times during the game, but fought back to produce an exciting final 11 minutes in which the teams were tied twice.

The game reached its crescendo shortly after the Hawks’ Pat Calathes’ 3-point play tied the game at 68 with 25 seconds remaining.

In the timeout after Calathes’ score, Boeheim called for Flynn to penetrate and find an open teammate. Flynn dribbled near half-court for 10 seconds before center Arinze Onuaku came out to set a screen. When Flynn saw Ahmad Nivins drop back, Flynn let fly over the 6-foot-9 St. Joe’s forward.

‘When I saw Ahmad Nivins back up, my eyes just lit up, like, ‘Is he really gonna give me this shot?’ Flynn said. ‘I just knew it was going in as soon as I shot it.’

The shot was an appropriate finish to a close game that at times tested the resolve of both teams.

‘For an early-season game, this was a really, really terrific basketball game,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I think St. Joe’s will win a lot of games this year. We had to make some big plays down the stretch.

‘Obviously, it’s important to get to New York and get those games for these young guys and see how they react there.’

Syracuse failed to score until the 14:24 mark of the first half, when Donte Greene hit a 3-pointer from the corner. Greene and Paul Harris were the leading scorers for Syracuse with 18 points. Harris also added 14 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.

Syracuse recovered from the deficit and took a 33-30 lead into the locker room. The advantage grew to 12 before a 17-5 St. Joe’s run saw the Hawks retake a 50-48 lead midway through the second half.

From there, it was back and forth the entire game, with the Orange managing to maintain a slim lead thanks mostly to Harris and Onuaku, who combined to score 11 straight at one stretch late in the second half. Onuaku finished 17 points, setting a career-high single-game point total for the second straight game.

‘You have to stay focused because you never know when your time is going to be to step up,’ Flynn said. ‘Donte had a great game tonight, so did Arinze and Paul, everybody played good. But the opportunity came up to me to take this shot, and I had enough courage and confidence to take it.’

Published on November 13, 2007 at 12:00 pm