Syracuse may have lost to Connecticut by 14 points Wednesday night, but as far as Paul Harris is concerned, all the Orange has to do to beat Georgetown Saturday is play the exact same way.

‘If we go home and compete how we competed tonight, I think we can beat Georgetown,’ Harris said. ‘… I think we can go home and play a 40-minute game and hopefully win.’

That was the prevailing sentiment in the visitor’s locker room of Gampel Pavilion Wednesday: It wasn’t that Syracuse played particularly bad against the Huskies. UConn was simply better.

The Orange will have the opportunity to put that theory to the test Saturday, when it welcomes the Hoyas to the Carrier Dome (noon, ESPN). It marks the second game between the two teams this season. Syracuse lost to Georgetown, 88-74, at the Verizon Center on Jan. 14.

The Orange has lost five of its last six games dating back to Jan. 19. Against Connecticut, Syracuse trailed by three at halftime, but scored just 22 points in the second half and finished with 49, its lowest output since 2004. Nevertheless, SU point guard Jonny Flynn found ways to take the positive from the contest.

‘I think a couple games we didn’t come out and play our hardest,’ Flynn said after the Connecticut loss. ‘That’s one thing I think about tonight. Even though we lost, and I’m not the guy to say we want a moral victory, but we really came out and played hard from the beginning. That’s what we could take out of this.’

Despite Syracuse’s recent struggles, UConn head coach Jim Calhoun came to its defense Wednesday. Calhoun spent a good portion of his postgame press conference talking freely about the quality of the Big East, stressing that the Orange should not be concerned about its recent slump, and that every team in this conference goes through rough patches – even the good ones.

As the teams were walking off the court Wednesday, Calhoun said he went to SU head coach Jim Boeheim and asked about how tough the Big East has been this year. Boeheim just shook his head.

‘Syracuse is good enough to beat any team in the country,’ Calhoun said. ‘…You hit Louisville, you hit Connecticut, you hit Pittsburgh and all of a sudden a good team doesn’t look good. I heard someone say they aren’t very good. There are some good teams with not so good records right now.’

The last time Syracuse played Georgetown, it played its worst game of the season up to that point. The Hoyas jumped on the Orange early, scoring 50 points in the first half on 60 percent from the field. SU had no answer for the duo of DaJuan Summers and Austin Freeman, who scored 21 and 19 points, respectively.

At the time, Georgetown was ranked No. 13 in the country. Since then, the Hoyas have been in a tailspin, losing six of seven and falling completely out of the national rankings. Its only victory since the Syracuse game was a 10-point win over Rutgers on Feb. 3.

Also in the Orange’s favor is that Saturday’s game is at home. Throughout Syracuse’s recent struggles, it has lost only one game at the Carrier Dome. To forward Rick Jackson, returning to the Dome could make all the difference.

‘We have to get back home and win,’ Jackson said Wednesday. ‘You have to protect your home court. We got to get this behind us and just move on and worry about Georgetown.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on February 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm