PHILADELPHIA – Donte Greene said he never expected a week like this. Sure, he thought, it’s possible Syracuse could win all three of its games within a seven-day span.

But with effectively six players and no bench? And two of those games on the road? No way.

Wake up Syracuse fans, this team is back in contention.

Syracuse won its second consecutive road Big East game, here at the Wachovia Center, an 87-73 victory over Villanova in front of 19,866 on Saturday. The win extends a three-game streak and caps a most improbable week with one of the Orange’s best team efforts of the season.

Syracuse improves to 16-7 and 6-4 in the Big East. In this week alone, the Orange has gone from 13th place in the conference to sixth. And now, a showdown with plenty of NCAA implications looms against Connecticut (16-5, 6-3) on Wednesday at the Carrier Dome.

‘Even over these past two wins we had games where (someone is) playing good and two people aren’t playing good,’ guard Jonny Flynn said. ‘This was a game today where everybody was playing good. If we can keep it like this, you’re going to see a lot of scores like this.’

And with seven players (really, only six) and playing the third game in a week, Syracuse knew the scoring would have to be spread out and not dependent on one player.

Paul Harris and Kristof Ongenaet scored career-highs in points, 28 and 12, respectively. Flynn finally found his stroke, going 8-for-11 from the field for 24 points. Greene chipped in a more than modest 17 points.

‘I’ve said we’re a talented team, anyone can score at anytime,’ Greene said. ‘Kristof had a big game for us today. Paul played great. Myself and Jonny contributed as we normally do. This is a good team win.’

Even with Scoop Jardine returning from his suspension, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim mostly stuck with a six-man rotation, citing Jardine’s lack of practice in the past week. The freshman, who was linked to an SUID theft by his cousin, played only three minutes in his first game back.

Unlike Wednesday at DePaul, when center Arinze Onuaku single-handedly carried the Orange offensively, when Syracuse needed a basket, it came from a variety of sources.

When Corey Fisher made his second 3-pointer in less than a minute to trim Syracuse’s lead to six, 66-60, Ongenaet – of all people – drained a 3-pointer from the corner as the shot clock expired with 7:26 left in the game. It was his first made 3-pointer since Dec. 18.

With Syracuse starting a comeback midway through the first half, it was Greene, who airballed his first shot, who made three 3’s that keyed a 15-0 Syracuse run from 7:34 to 4:05.

And when Flynn missed a 3-pointer with time running out in the first half, Rick Jackson grabbed the offensive board and put back a reverse layup as time expired to put the Orange ahead by five at the break after trailing by as many as 11 points.

The starting guards, Flynn and Harris, combined for 52 points. Onuaku, who scored 22 points at DePaul, was double-teamed much of the game and only took one shot.

‘When you have so many weapons out there, it’s hard to stop every weapon,’ Flynn said. ‘When it’s like that, someone’s going to get off. This was a game for the guards today.’

Villanova’s star guard Scottie Reynolds, spent the entire game in foul trouble (much like the entire Wildcats team) and scored zero points in the first half. He finished with 12 points, five coming in the final minute when the game was already decided.

Stopping Reynolds was a team task, as was the defensive comeback by the Orange after a miserable beginning.

Villanova started the game shooting 12-for-14 and most of the baskets were easy ones in the paint.

‘Once we got back here and kind of tightened it up a little bit, they missed a couple shots, I think they were 13-for-15 [sic] to start,’ Boeheim said. ‘I didn’t realize that. It’s a good thing I didn’t realize that I probably would have quit.’

But once Syracuse’s zone defense solidified the interior, Villanova was forced to take jump shots – and missed most of them. That’s when Greene started hitting his shots, Flynn became a scoring option and Harris created his drives to the hoop.

And through everything that’s transpired in the past seven days, that six-man Syracuse team has emerged as a contender in the Big East.

‘It’s big,’ Harris said. ‘We just proved to everyone we can win on the road last game. Now we came out here and snuffed another one out.’

Published on February 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm