It took three tries, but Syracuse was finally tested in the closing moments of a Big East game. As Josh Fortune banked in a miraculous 3-pointer from the right wing with 40 seconds remaining, the Orange lead dwindled down to just four points.

On the floor were its leaders, those battle-tested enough to make head coach Jim Boeheim feel comfortable. And it’s no coincidence that the group of Brandon Triche, C.J. Fair, James Southerland and Rakeem Christmas is the team’s most experienced. Toss in Michael Carter-Williams because of his supreme talent, and it appears Boeheim has found his crunch-time lineup.

“It’s like do you want to win, or do you want to play those (younger) guys?” Boeheim said. “I always choose winning over the other. We wouldn’t have won if we had played those young guys tonight. We needed the other guys in there the whole time.”

In its first down-to-the-wire conference test of the season on Wednesday, Syracuse rode its veterans to a 72-66 win in a hostile environment at Providence. It was a win that perhaps foreshadowed the annual shrinking of Boeheim’s rotation, and as Big East play continues, with Villanova up next on Saturday at noon, fans should expect to see less and less of SU’s trio of youngsters as their development continues in practice.

The group of DaJuan Coleman, Jerami Grant and Trevor Cooney played a combined seven minutes against the Friars earlier this week, scoring a total of zero points and grabbing zero rebounds. And junior Baye Moussa Keita picked up three fouls in his two minutes of play.

The brunt of the task was saddled on the aforementioned five-man lineup, with each player logging an astounding 38 minutes or more. Only Christmas, who finished with a career-high 15 points and eight rebounds, came close to fouling out — he had four. The group played intelligent basketball showing resiliency on the road.

“But I think the thing I like about my team is (Providence) made that shot, everybody got up, it was a one-point game and we came right down, attacked it and scored,” said Boeheim. “That’s pretty good.”

Boehim was referring to a sequence in the second half where Carter-Williams hit a crucial 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down, only to have it answered immediately by Providence point guard Vincent Council on the other end. It cut the Syracuse lead to one with under 6 minutes remaining and ignited the crowd at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

But back came the Orange, going right to its most capable scorer on the night in Fair. He rebounded his own miss and put it back in to extend the lead right back to three points.

And when the game was on the line in the final moments, the Syracuse veterans hit their free throws. SU finished the game a remarkable 17-for-18 from the free-throw line, and Fair made all six of his attempts in the last two minutes.

“It was a tough contest today, but we stuck with it,” Fair said. “For us to beat good teams and win big games like this we need to knock down free throws. And we did that, so I think that made us not be able to be beat.”

The Syracuse freshmen, by comparison, just weren’t ready for the moment in a game like this, evidenced by Boeheim’s frustration with Cooney. During his only action of the game in the first half, Cooney left Providence sharpshooter Bryce Cotton open — twice — for 3-pointers.

The negligence irked Boeheim, especially after Cotton was the one player he and his staff identified during the week as dangerous from the outside. He can live with Cooney missing 3-pointers, and on Wednesday he went 0-for-2, but blowing a defensive assignment finds you a spot on the bench.

“The reason Trevor came out, I don’t care if he misses shots, but he left Cotton open twice,” Boeheim said. “He needs to know that he can’t do that.”

And though he wants to get his younger players more time on the court — he has called their development, especially that of Coleman, pivotal to an NCAA Tournament run — they just aren’t ready yet. So until then, the veterans bear the burden.

“The (young guys) either understand it or call home and complain,” Boeheim said. “That’s what kids do. They all want to play. If they didn’t want to play and they weren’t unhappy about not playing, I wouldn’t want them on my team.’’

Published on January 11, 2013 at 11:39 am

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13