Eric Devendorf sulked off the court, muttering a few words of protest to Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim about the foul just called on him.

Devendorf had committed his fourth personal foul just moments earlier, at the 16:31 mark of the second half, leaping to try to intercept an inbounds pass and making contact with a Rhode Island player. Devendorf wouldn’t see the court again until there was 6:17 left in the game.

But Devendorf wasn’t the only SU player plagued by foul trouble in Syracuse’s 91-89 loss to Rhode Island on Saturday night. Donte Greene fouled out, and Devendorf, Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson each finished with four personals, thanks mostly to a second half in which the Orange committed a staggering 18 fouls.

The foul trouble meant Syracuse was forced to shuffle its lineup and play much of the second half without Devendorf or Greene, the team’s two most prolific scorers.

‘We never adjusted once Eric got out and when he came back in he never got into it,’ Boeheim said.

Devendorf’s foul was already the team’s sixth foul of a second half that was just three and a half minutes old. Just 13 second later, Jonny Flynn’s foul put the Rams into the bonus free throw situation. By the 9:04 mark of the half, Syracuse had committed 10 fouls and put Rhode Island in the double bonus.

The result of the 18 fouls was a parade to the free throw line – Rhode Island attempted 27 free throws in the half, making 17 of them.

Boeheim attributed the high foul count to the Orange’s decision to play man defense. Three days after Syracuse committed just four infractions in the second half playing zone defense against Virginia, SU played man almost the entire game on Saturday.

‘When you play man-to-man the whole game you’re more likely to get into foul trouble,’ Boeheim said. ‘Foul trouble was key but we’re going to get into to foul trouble if we play man unless we play a lot better than we did tonight.’

Devendorf and Greene were the two biggest casualties of the foul trouble. Devendorf, who scored just three of his 15 points after halftime, played just 10 minutes in the second half and, as Boeheim admitted afterward, was never able to get back into a rhythm after his extended lay-off. He committed a turnover and went 0-for-2 from the field in his final six minutes – including a wild missed shot in the lane with 16 seconds left and SU down two, 89-87.

Greene sat out three minutes after picking up his fourth personal near the 9:04 mark, and then fouled out with 4:10 remaining shortly after returning, finishing with 12 points.

With Greene out and Devendorf struggling, Syracuse lost its scoring touch in the final two minutes.

‘I think it was tremendous,’ Rhode Island coach Jim Baron said of getting SU’s two top scorers into foul trouble. ‘I think Devendorf is a tremendous scorer and then Greene we really backed down and getting him foul trouble and then fouling him out was tremendous and extremely pivotal.’

The foul trouble did open up opportunities for freshmen Rick Jackson and Scoop Jardine, who played well in stretches of the second half. Jackson finished with a career-high 13 points and seven rebounds.

Yet with no Devendorf and no Greene, SU just lost its rhythm in a second half that saw the Orange blow a lead that at one point in the half was 11 points.

‘As you see, when Eric and Donte go out, we have good bench play, but those are our main two scorers,’ SU forward Paul Harris said. ‘We look forward to those guys doing a lot for us.’

The foul trouble also showed SU its tentativeness on the defensive end. That was especially apparent rebounding – SU was outrebounded, 46-35, on the game and allowed the Rams to pull down a stunning 21 offensive rebounds.

Paul Harris said of the calls: ‘It makes you scared to even put your hands up.’

Indeed, many of the fouls were of the touch variety, and many left the Carrier Dome crowd, and the SU players, questioning the calls.

‘Of course you’re going to get frustrated,’ freshman Jonny Flynn said. ‘Some of those fouls were fouls, but a lot of them weren’t. But there’s going to be games like that, you can’t let the ref dictate how you play a game. That’s what we do a lot.’

Published on December 8, 2007 at 12:00 pm