Motivation wouldn’t be a problem, Donte Greene insisted a day prior to Syracuse’s 87-81 NIT first round victory over Robert Morris.

After all, the last thing this Orange season needed was a little more embarrassment.

‘You never want to lose a game,’ Greene said before Monday’s practice. ‘Especially – no offense to Robert Morris – but especially to Robert Morris.’

Had it not been for a stellar performance from Greene, that humiliation could have been all too real.

Greene scored a career-high 27 points as top-seeded Syracuse managed to hold off an undersized, scrappy Robert Morris Tuesday in front of a sparse crowd of 10,536 at the Carrier Dome. The Colonials were down by as little as two with a minute remaining before the Orange made enough free throws down the stretch for the win.

SU will now host fifth-seeded Maryland Thursday at 7 p.m. The Terrapins defeated Minnesota Tuesday night, 68-58.

The win gave SU head coach Jim Boeheim his 30th 20-win season, matching the Division I record owned by former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith.

SU held on despite freshman point guard Jonny Flynn sitting out the entire second half after he aggravated a lower back injury suffered last Wednesday. Flynn had been unable to practice fully on Monday but started the game.

The narrow victory came mostly thanks to Greene, who regained the silky shooting touch that had eluded him for much of the Big East season.

‘I was just more relaxed,’ Greene said after Tuesday’s game as he lounged on a couch in the locker room and took in the remainder of the Maryland-Minnesota game.

‘I got to go home last weekend and shoot around in the gym with a couple of high school teammates, a couple of AAU teammates. Just got back into shooting. I just went out there and had fun.’

Greene showcased all the facets of the offensive game that have led many to believe he could enter the NBA Draft after one college season. The 6-foot-11 freshman shot 10-for-19 from the field and 6-for-12 from 3. Paul Harris added a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Most of this without Flynn, who played 14 first-half minutes before he re-aggravated the injury. He finished with just two points on 1-of-6 shooting and three assists.

Greene looked comfortable against a Robert Morris team that didn’t present nearly the challenge the forward had seen in his last 19 games against Big East competition.

‘He shot the ball well tonight,’ Harris said. ‘He said before game he was going to go out there and light it up and he did … He knew the biggest guy checking him would be 6-6.’

Greene’s 16 first-half points helped keep the Orange afloat against an undersized Robert Morris side that seemed to confound the Orange. The eighth-seeded Colonials, regular season champions of the Northeast Conference, employed a lineup that featured just one starter taller than 6-foot-3 (that being 6-foot-6 forward A.J. Jackson).

Yet for much of the game, Syracuse failed to capitalize on that size advantage, opting for 3’s instead of pounding the ball inside. Center Arinze Onauku had just seven points and four field goal attempts.

The Colonials were content to live beyond the arc – 41 of their 64 field goals attempts were 3’s. Their lone forward, Jackson, attempted 12 3-pointers alone.

And Robert Morris made just enough of those 3’s to stay close for all 40 minutes. It led for much of the half and even led by one with 6:55 left before a 9-0 run featuring a Greene 3 gave SU the lead for good.

The Orange committed 18 turnovers and gave up 14 offensive rebounds to its smaller opposition.

‘The biggest thing that bothers me with this team is we play good defense, and we force them to miss a shot and we can’t get the rebound,’ Boeheim said. ‘… We can’t get the rebounds with two of our guys on a 6-foot guy.’

Yet Greene managed to come up with enough offense to offset both SU’s lackadaisical play and Flynn’s absence.

His reward? A chance for the Baltimore native to play a school in Maryland that he grew up watching.

‘I know all the guys,’ Greene said, eyes wide with excitement. ‘… I’ve been playing with them since 11th grade. So I go to a lot of their games, and they know what to expect from me.’

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on March 18, 2008 at 12:00 pm