For an instant, the fourth-largest basketball crowd in Carrier Dome history went silent. Ryan Boatright zipped a bullet pass inside to Tyler Olander, and the Connecticut forward drew the fourth foul on Syracuse center Fab Melo.

Olander split a pair of free throws to bring the Huskies within two points of No. 2 Syracuse. The clock read 6:26.

When the clock read all zeroes, Boatright failed to put into words the preceding six-plus minutes of basketball.

‘I don’t even know what happened after that free throw,’ said Boatright, UConn’s freshman point guard. ‘I can’t even tell you, man.’

What happened was offensive brilliance. What happened was an 18-1 Syracuse run. A two-point edge turned into a 19-point disparity as SU (25-1, 12-1 Big East) ran away from the Huskies for an 85-67 win in front of a crowd of 33,430. The Orange turned in its best offensive game of the season courtesy of a 59-percent shooting clip and 10 3-pointers, using an extra gear to blow past Connecticut (15-9, 5-7 Big East).

It was, quite simply, about as perfect a game as one team can have.

‘We can’t play much better offensively,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.

The team’s first field goal, a stunningly rare 15-foot jumper by center Fab Melo, foreshadowed the uniqueness of Saturday’s game. And when he repeated the act twice more in the game’s first eight minutes, the stars began to align.

Syracuse shot a sizzling 65 percent in the first half, nailing five 3s to take a nine-point lead into the break. The Huskies, who played arguably their best half of basketball in almost a month, still found themselves trailing 43-34.

‘They were hot,’ UConn forward Jeremy Lamb said. ‘They were knocking down shots.’

Following Olander’s free throw, hot became white-hot.

Scoop Jardine drilled back-to-back 3s on set plays. He sliced to the rim for a tough layup in traffic two possessions later. Dion Waiters converted a 3-point play, then hit a jumper and a layup.

And Jardine capped off the spurt with a third 3, this one directly in front of the Syracuse bench.

The two Syracuse guards combined for all 18 points in the 18-1 run, Jardine with 11 and Waiters with seven. They didn’t miss, Jardine hitting four shots and Waiters hitting a 3-pointer.

Five minutes and 27 seconds had elapsed. The scoreboard now read 81-62.

‘We were playing good the whole time,’ Boeheim said. ‘And then we just played better, which is hard to do sometimes when you’re playing really good to play better.’

George Blaney, filling in for the ailing Jim Calhoun, was helpless along the Connecticut sideline.

He barked encouragement after an Olander turnover with the score 66-61 in favor of the Orange only to burn a timeout 28 seconds later after a Jardine 3.

Lamb clanked a 3, and Drummond committed an offensive foul. Then Drummond turned it over again, and Lamb clanked another 3.

Shabazz Napier’s layup with 47 seconds left stopped the run but couldn’t stop the bleeding. A pair of free throws from Waiters ballooned the lead to 20 with 19 seconds remaining — six minutes after the Huskies had pulled within two.

‘It’s as good a team as I’ve seen Jimmy (Boeheim) have,’ Blaney said. ‘It’s certainly his deepest team. … When they get in trouble, they can isolate so many different people that can just beat you. And then Waiters and Jardine just had phenomenal games.’

Jardine finished with a game-high 21 points and six assists. Waiters, his backcourt partner, chipped in with 18 points. Together, they shot 15-of-19 from the floor.

With 1:38 remaining, Waiters followed up a missed jumper by C.J. Fair for a putback in the lane. He flexed his muscles as he ran back down court, a perfect representation of the game’s final six minutes.

Jardine and Waiters beat up on the smaller Connecticut guards, imposing their will on the youthful Huskies.

‘Scoop hit two big 3s,’ Waiters said. ‘He opened it wide open for us, and it was just our turn to stomp on their necks.’

Of the eight Connecticut players who took the court, seven experienced the Carrier Dome for the first time, including Boatright.

The freshman left dazed, unable to verbalize his team’s dilapidation. Twice the Huskies clawed within two points — two chances to possibly save their season.

In a blink of an eye, they were handed a blowout loss.

‘When we hit some adversity, they hit a few shots,’ Boatright said. ‘And we fell apart after that.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on February 10, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13