NEW YORK – After failing to score in the first half, and with his Syracuse team locked in a tight game against Seton Hall, Eric Devendorf needed a jolt of energy.

He got it with 16 minutes left in the second half, when he jumped into a tussle of players following a hard foul on Syracuse forward Kristof Ongenaet. Devendorf received a technical foul after a shoving match with Seton Hall’s Eugene Harvey.

It was just what Devendorf, and Syracuse, needed.

Devendorf scored 16 points after that moment, and keyed a 21-8 Syracuse run that sent the No. 18 Orange (24-8) to an 89-74 over Seton Hall (16-15) in the second round of the Big East tournament here at Madison Square Garden in front of 19,375.

‘It just happened to kind of rile us up a little bit and get us going, step it up a couple of notches,’ Devendorf said. ‘I guess they made the wrong move.’

Syracuse, the winner of five straight games, moves on to play No. 3 Connecticut Thursday at 9 p.m. in the tournament quarterfinals. Syracuse lost its only matchup with the Huskies this season, 63-49, on Feb. 11.

The double technical on Devendorf and Harvey was part of a larger stretch in which four technical fouls and an intentional foul were called in a span of seven seconds, resulting in both head coaches coming out onto the floor and the players in each other’s faces.

With 16 minutes left in the second half, SU center Arinze Onuaku and Seton Hall center John Garcia were both issued technical fouls after a verbal altercation under the hoop. On the ensuing possession, Ongenaet was fouled hard by Brandon Walters while going up for a fastbreak layup. Walters was given an intentional foul. Devendorf and SHU’s Eugene Harvey were given technicals in the ensuing altercations.

Play was stopped for a few minutes, as ‘Let’s go Orange’ chants rained down on the Garden floor. SU head coach Jim Boeheim tried to re-concentrate his team on the task in front of them.

‘We just wanted to play basketball,’ Boeheim said. ‘It wasn’t that big of a deal. Just put that behind you and just concentrate on playing basketball.’

The Syracuse team that emerged from that huddle hardly resembled the lackluster one that entered it. After Ongenaet made one-of-two free throws, Devendorf hit a long 3-pointer from the corner on the ensuing possession. His trash talking resumed immediately, but he backed it up by scoring 16 points in the ensuing nine minutes, silencing any opposition.

‘I’m a very emotional player, I take pride in what I do,’ Devendorf said. ‘If it means getting in someone’s face and protecting my teammate, then that’s what I gotta do. Some people may take it the wrong way, think I’m an a-hole or something like that, but it’s whatever.’

After the technical fouls, Syracuse scored 30 points in eight minutes, and shot 67 percent overall in the second half, while putting up 53 points.

When asked about it after the game, SU point guard Jonny Flynn couldn’t deny the emotional effect the plays had on the Orange.

‘Altercations like that always bring a team together,’ Flynn said. ‘When you can get a team together and get a team fired up on one goal and with one strong mindset that can always help us out.’

The series ended helping Syracuse in two ways, after Garcia, the team’s leading rebounder, picked up his fourth foul on the technical and had to leave the game. The Orange outscored Seton Hall in the paint, 30-14, in the second half.

‘It hurt us more than it hurt them because they can absorb a couple technicals or a guy getting in foul trouble,’ SHU head coach Bobby Gonzalez said. ‘We can’t. John Garcia had four fouls with 16 minutes to go. That really hurt us.’

Being involved in two double technicals wasn’t the most typical way to ignite a scoring run. But for a Syracuse team riding through the end of its season on an emotional high, it may have been the most appropriate.

‘I think the two altercations we got in really pushed the button for our team to go out there and be aggressive and really stay focused in the game and put it to Seton Hall,’ Flynn said.

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm