NEW YORK – The players flooded off the Syracuse bench, racing toward the center of Madison Square Garden. Eric Devendorf jumped up onto the table and put his arms in the air, shouting.

Devendorf, the SU shooting guard, had just sunk a desperation 3-pointer at the end of regulation that seemed to leave his hand just as the horn sounded. Referees ruled it a made basket, giving Syracuse a three-point win over No. 3 Connecticut in the Big East tournament quarterfinals.

‘We all thought it was done,’ shooting guard Andy Rautins said.

But as the celebration ensued, the referees conferred around the small monitor. As more and more time passed, the SU bench grew weary. After about five minutes of review, referee Bob Donato emerged waving his arms, signaling the shot was not taken until after time had expired.

Syracuse would eventually win the game, 127-117, but it would take six overtime periods following Devendorf’s shot to determine a winner in the longest game in Big East tournament history.

‘You know, it would have been a lot better if they just counted Eric’s shot and we could have gone home two hours ago,’ Boeheim said after the game.

Having the shot waved off gave Syracuse a jolt of emotion, from jubilation to trying to focus for an overtime period. The Huskies jumped out to a four-point lead, while the Orange didn’t score until the 3:19 mark. Syracuse had to rally to force the second overtime.

‘I told the guys that we had to be ready for anything,’ Rautins said. ‘We had to be ready for an overtime game. Statistically, we proved that we play well in overtime, so we weren’t afraid of us, and we welcomed it.’

The shot managed to get dwarfed by the 30 minutes of basketball played afterward, in which both teams had several opportunities to close its opponent out. But in a game that took nearly four hours, players couldn’t help but wonder what could have been had the ball left Devendorf’s hand a split second earlier.

‘When I’m looking up at the floor, it looked like he got it out on time, but it was close,’ SU point guard Jonny Flynn said. ‘And when it went in, I thought we really stole one from them.’

Harris comes alive in OT

It sure didn’t seem like it at the time. But being benched for the second half of Thursday’s game proved to be a blessing in disguise for SU forward Paul Harris.

While Harris struggled through the second half – ‘I can’t describe how awful he was for most of the part of that game,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said – his teammates forced overtime against the Huskies.

But they paid the price for doing so. Forward Kristof Ongenaet fouled out 33 seconds into overtime. Starting center Arinze Onuaku was gone by the second overtime. That put the frontcourt onus on Harris, who answered the call.

Harris played 29 of 30 minutes in overtime, and scored 21 of his career-high 29 points after regulation. Despite missing some key layups down the stretch – most notably two layups in the closing seconds of the fourth overtime – Harris was key in SU’s eventual win.

‘There were so many easy shots, and I missed, and I was trying to get fouled and missing the layups,’ Harris said. ‘I just kept asking God ‘Please give me another opportunity, and don’t let this game slip away.’ We finally came up with it.’

Solid from the stripe

In the 10-page postgame box score, one number stood out the most for Boeheim: free throw shooting.

The Orange entered the game shooting at a 63.3 percent clip, good enough for 12th in the conference. Thursday, the Orange shot 40-of-51 (78.4 percent) from the stripe.

Flynn led the charge, hitting all 16 of his free throw tries. Harris hit 13 of 14. And when the Orange needed free throws most, it hit them: 23 of 26 in overtime, and 10 of 11 in the final overtime

The biggest free throws of the night may have come long before that: with the game tied with two minutes left in regulation, Connecticut intentionally fouled Onuaku, a 29.6 percent free throw shooter on the season.

But Onuaku shocked nearly everyone in the Garden by making both free throws and giving SU a two-point lead.

‘The free throw shooting was absolutely unbelievable tonight,’ Boeheim said. ‘We had to make two free throws at least seven, eight times. It was Jonny most of the time, but Paul a couple times, Andy. We must have made 16 straight free throws that had to be made just to stay in the game.’

Joseph learns to play center

As foul trouble decimated the SU roster deep in the game, some players found themselves in some unusual places.

None more than freshman reserve forward Kris Joseph, who found himself inserted as center after Onuaku, Jackson and Ongenaet had all fouled out.

‘I was scared, to tell you the truth,’ Joseph said after the game. He admitted he hadn’t played center in about five years.

But after taking a charging call early on in his tenure as center, Joseph began to loosen up a bit. During every timeout, Onuaku was there to provide guidance.

‘It was almost like everything I told him to do he did,’ Onuaku said. ‘He took the charge, he contested the shot. And I know he hasn’t ever been a center, so every timeout I would tell him what to do.

‘He really looked lost out there, but he made a couple good plays out there.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm