NEW YORK – Eric Devendorf didn’t mean to tap Avery Patterson’s midsection with his hand. He didn’t think it was much of a push, but it was enough for the referees to notice.

‘I just tipped him on the stomach,’ Devendorf said. ‘I guess they figured it was a foul.’

A big foul. Patterson was in the process of nailing a St. John’s go-ahead 3-pointer. He converted the four-point play to put the Red Storm ahead for good.

St. John’s handed Syracuse its first loss in four games, a 64-60 thriller at Madison Square Garden Sunday in front of 11,716 fans.

The loss snapped a 47-game SU winning streak against New York schools. The last time the Orange (15-5, 4-2) dropped a game to an in-state foe was Feb. 19, 2000, when it lost to St. John’s 76-75. SU had beaten the Red Storm in six straight games.

The ending was especially bittersweet for Devendorf, who notched a career-high 23 points and single-handedly kept the Orange in the game with his hot shooting.

The rest of the Orange was only half existent.

Terrence Roberts posted his third consecutive double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but shot 1-for-9 from the free-throw line and didn’t score in the second half. Demetris Nichols scored only 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting. Paul Harris grabbed 12 rebounds, but scored just four points. Darryl Watkins was a no-show with three rebounds and four points.

With no Nichols or Josh Wright because of foul trouble and no inside offensive presence whatsoever, Syracuse had only Devendorf to turn to for points.

‘Eric brought us back in the end,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He made some big shots. He’s the only guy shooting the ball from the perimeter. He brought us back on his own. One guy can’t do it over other people.’

When St. John’s (11-8, 2-4) opened a seven-point lead with eight minutes left, it looked grim for SU. Out of a media timeout, Matt Gorman drained a 3-pointer and then Devendorf took over.

He scored 10 straight points for Syracuse, capped by a 3-pointer at the top of the key to put SU up 55-53 with 4:14 remaining in the game.

‘Obviously when we got the lead I thought we were going to be able to handle it,’ Devendorf said. ‘But they made some big shots down the stretch. I, myself, had some dumb fouls.’

The four-point play was the key, only because SU failed to score for two and a half minutes after Devendorf’s 3-pointer gave it the lead. Nichols finally hit a 3, only his second of the game, to put the Orange back up by one with 1:47 left. Patterson made his four-point play on the other end of the court.

In fact, Patterson scored seven points in a 26-second span for the Red Storm. Before he hit the two crucial 3-pointers in the last minute and a half, Patterson was 0-for-5 from 3-point land.

‘I wasn’t really worried about my jump shot,’ Patterson said. ‘I was just trying to do the little things. My teammates kept telling me to shoot the ball. Mase (Anthony Mason Jr.) kept telling me it was going to fall.’

Even without Patterson’s shot for much of the game and playing without injured senior guard Daryll Hill, St. John’s led for much of the game. SU led for only 1:45 during the game.

The Orange led only once in the first half, when the score was 28-26 after a thunderous Roberts dunk. SU was plagued by a slow start, which saw St. John’s take a lead as big as 11 less than four minutes into the game.

‘We came out with no energy today,’ Nichols said. ‘We have to regroup and refocus for Saturday’s game (at Louisville).

‘We want to try and forget about this game as soon as possible.’

Published on January 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm