John Wallace stared down Jonny Flynn from the left wing as the clock ticked down under 10 seconds. With his team trailing by one in the Syracuse Legends Game, Wallace wanted to be the hero.

‘It felt good to be out there, man,’ said Wallace, a former star forward for the Orange. ‘ … I love the Dome. There’s no better place to play, and I definitely wanted the ball with a chance to win the game.’

And with help from an eight-inch height advantage, Wallace drilled a 3-pointer over the top of Flynn with less than five seconds left to give the White team a 44-42 win. Wallace’s final basket capped off an exciting scrimmage with some of Syracuse’s most famous men’s basketball alumni. Wallace and Flynn were joined by Hakim Warrick, Wes Johnson, Lazarus Sims, Gerry McNamara, among others, to take part in an all-star-like game as part of SU’s annual Midnight Madness.

The remarkable collection of former Orange greats was well received by the audience, as recent alumni such as Andy Rautins crossed paths with stars of years gone by, like Lawrence Moten.

‘This is the most incredible Midnight Madness ever, like in history,’ Wallace said. ‘ … We got all the old alumni here, all the greatest players, all the legends, all the current players, coach. It’s just an amazing, amazing — it’s like an epic event right here.’

Though SU’s most famous basketball alumnus was in attendance — Carmelo Anthony — the current New York Knicks star didn’t suit up despite multiple appeals from the crowd. Twice the audience chanted ‘We want Melo!’ to no avail.

But the rest of the Orange stars didn’t disappoint. In a game that featured minimal defensive effort and countless dunks, the crowd was brought to its feet on several occasions.

Warrick and Donte Greene, both members of the winning White team, took turns putting home impressive alley-oops. Warrick threw a lob from half court to Greene, who threw it down to make the score 26-23 in favor of the White team. Then Greene returned the favor, floating a pass to Warrick on a fast break that the current Suns power forward slammed emphatically with his right hand, prompting SU women’s basketball head coach Quentin Hillsman to leap out of his chair and yell ‘Oh, no!’

The Blue team was led by Rautins, Johnson and Eric Devendorf. Johnson did his best to counter the dunks by Warrick and Greene, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

It came down to Wallace nailing one last 3-pointer over his upstate counterpart, Flynn.

‘Jonny Flynn is from upstate, so I had to do it to him,’ Wallace said. ‘It’s an upstate thing. … I always played good in the Dome.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on October 15, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13