STORRS, Conn.– An angry Jim Boeheim summed up the game in one sentence. Then he got up and left his own press conference.

‘We didn’t shoot the ball well, we didn’t execute well, and we’re not going to win any games when the fouls are 25-14 and we’re playing zone and they’re playing man-to-man.’

Perhaps he couldn’t have said it any better. Syracuse was handed another frustrating loss after snapping its three-game losing streak on Saturday. Connecticut defeated the Orange, 67-60, Monday night at Gampel Pavilion in front of 10,167 fans. It was Syracuse’s third-straight loss on the road.

The Huskies out-rebounded SU 49-32 as both Darryl Watkins and Terrence Roberts spent the entire second half in foul trouble and eventually fouled out. Demetris Nichols scored 20 points, Paul Harris posted a double-double (13 points and 10 boards), but no one else on SU had an answer for the Huskies.

UConn went to the free-throw line 37 times, missed 18 and still won by seven points.

Maybe that’s why Boeheim couldn’t bear to talk about it.

‘It’s definitely frustrating when you work hard on defense … they can’t even score,’ Roberts said of the Huskies. ‘They’re a horrible offensive team. We worked our butts off. For them to just get the rebound and go to the free-throw line or hit a 3, that’s what really killed us.’

Maybe it was the four turnovers by Eric Devendorf in the final five minutes that had Boeheim fuming.

‘We had some lapses,’ Demetris Nichols said. ‘We had some mental mistakes.’

Most likely, it was the precarious foul trouble in which Syracuse spent the majority of the game, making the rebounding battle a no-contest.

Watkins picked up his fourth foul 12 seconds into the second half. Roberts was called for his with 14:20 left in the game. Syracuse played the next 5:50 without either of its two starting big men and miraculously kept the UConn advantage to a single point, even with 6-foot-9 Matt Gorman guarding 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet.

However, Roberts fouled out two minutes later, forcing Boeheim’s hand into putting Watkins back in with more than six minutes remaining. Roberts incredulously stomped off the floor with the UConn student section baiting him until he finally took his seat on the SU bench, much to the delight of the Gampel crowd.

‘This is a physical league,’ Roberts said. ‘They claim that this is supposed to be one of the most physical leagues. To call a ticky-tack foul, and you can tell I didn’t foul him because I jumped in front of him with both of my hands. (The official) said I pushed him from behind.’

Once Roberts left the game, the Orange didn’t score another point for nearly three minutes, when Devendorf hit two free-throws to cut the lead to four points. By then, Watkins had already fouled out, too.

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun, who earned his 500th victory at UConn, said the strategy all along was to put SU’s big men in foul problems.

‘We attacked them, defensively, and eventually got inside position and got fouls an awful lot,’ Calhoun said. ‘Think of all the times we got fouls getting rebounds and loose balls and things – and fighting them. When you fight a team you got a chance to foul them a number of times and give yourself a chance to win.’

The first half was a battle of attrition. Syracuse shot 34.4 percent, UConn 34.6. If it weren’t for the Huskies 6-for-13 shooting from the free-throw line, its one-point halftime advantage would have been greater. And if it weren’t for Harris, the Orange’s deficit would have been greater.

When the SU offense stalled in the first half, it turned to Harris – mostly out of necessity. With a banged-up Roberts, a foul-ridden Gorman and Watkins and cold-shooting by Nichols, Devendorf and Rautins, Harris was Syracuse’s lone option. He scored seven points on 3-of-5 shooting, grabbed five rebounds, and for the first time in Big East play, looked like the as-advertised hyped freshman recruit – all in just nine first-half minutes.

The Orange held a lead as big as seven points with 9:50 (16-9) left in the first. But when UConn connected on a few of its long-range jumpers to take a 17-16 lead, Harris scored three points in a row, grabbed two rebounds and set up a Devendorf 3-pointer to push SU back up by four, 21-17. It was the Orange’s lone 3-pointer of the first half, as SU finished 1-of-9 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes. It shot a measly 4-for-18 for the game.

Roberts said there’s no looking back now, or else Syracuse won’t have a chance to glance into the future.

‘We gotta find a way to get it together,’ Roberts said, ‘or this season is going to be over a lot faster than we want it to be.’

Published on February 5, 2007 at 12:00 pm