Paul Harris was the first Syracuse player to evacuate the court. Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene? They stayed and jumped around until the charging students engulfed them. Freshman mistake.

‘That was crazy,’ Flynn said. ‘Me and Donte were at the bottom of the pile. Everybody was jumping on us and we were like, ‘Hold on, we have a season to finish here.”

He’s right.

There is work left – five games, to be exact. But no Orange win was bigger this season than Saturday’s 77-70 upset of No. 8 Georgetown, especially coming off a disastrous loss to Big East bottom-dweller South Florida on Wednesday. Especially considering the rest of the daunting schedule.

But Syracuse is alive and well in the NCAA Tournament debate after a stellar defensive effort against the Hoyas in front of 31,327 fans at the Carrier Dome, the largest on-campus attendance in the nation this season.

The Orange (17-9, 7-6 Big East) allowed 22 first-half points to Georgetown (20-4, 10-3), the lowest total for the Hoyas this season. Syracuse built as much as a 21-point lead in the first 20 minutes en route to its first regular-season win over an opponent ranked higher than eighth since March 7, 2004 when SU defeated then-No. 7 Connecticut, 67-56.

‘Our defense was the key tonight,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We were tremendous at the defensive end of the court. The stats don’t look like it; they made so many 3’s at the end there. But our defense was tremendous.’

All the more frustrating after the shocking 89-78 loss at South Florida Wednesday, when the Bulls shot 57 percent from the field. But still encouraging in light of the remaining schedule, as SU will play four out of its last five games against teams ranked in either poll beginning Monday with a road test at No. 23 Louisville.

At halftime Saturday, Georgetown had twice as many turnovers (12) as made field goals (6). Syracuse scored 18 points off the turnovers to the Hoyas’ zero points off five SU giveaways.

The Orange held a 16-point halftime lead, almost too easy, and that’s probably because it was. Georgetown closed the gap to seven points less than five minutes into the second half.

‘Our guys hung in there,’ Boeheim said. ‘You know Georgetown is going to make a run. They made a run right away. We countered that really well. They made another run, and we really countered it well and got back up a big lead.’

Syracuse’s largest lead of the second half was 17 points, with 10:39 remaining, but the game wasn’t decided until Greene nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to put the Orange up eight with seven minutes left, and then a Paul Harris drive to the basket after a beautiful crossover move with 2:11 left to ice the game.

Harris led Syracuse players with 22 points, the third time in the last four games he’s eclipsed 20. Greene had 18 points, Flynn had 17 and nine assists and big man Arinze Onuaku finally displayed the offensive capability he showed earlier in the season with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

Onuaku shut down the preseason Big East player of the year, Roy Hibbert. The 7-foot-2 center had 11 points, only three rebounds, and spent much of the game in foul trouble.

The stifling Syracuse zone defense extended beyond the paint, though. Flynn called it the best zone the Orange has played all season.

‘I would have to say so,’ Flynn said. ‘We were contesting shots, keeping the ball out of the high post, getting a lot of key blocks.’

Georgetown scored 48 second-half points, and Boeheim said he doesn’t expect any defense, especially considering Syracuse’s self-described ‘five-and-a-half-man rotation,’ to keep up the intensity it displayed during the first 20 minutes.

Jonathan Wallace had 26 points for the Hoyas, but 11 of those came in the final 1:24 with the game already decided. Georgetown’s bench scored two points, and Jessie Sapp and DaJuan Summers missed a combined 18 shots with the Orange defenders getting out far.

‘Today you can see what the activity did,’ Flynn said. ‘Fourteen turnovers out of a Georgetown team that slows it down and never rushes. We rushed them, trapped them and [had] them in a hectic style of a game.’

Syracuse used the defensive effort to launch an 18-2 run that resulted in the large halftime lead, which proved to be enough in the end.

And when the final celebration ensued, Harris enjoyed it. But he knows the Orange has more to accomplish.

‘Our backs are still against the wall,’ he said. ‘We’re not guaranteed anything after this win. But the same time, we have good quality games coming up and if we win, they’ll be good quality wins.’

magelb@syr.edu

Published on February 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm