MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Early on, Paul Harris sensed the game, and Syracuse’s season, was starting to slip away. The shooters who had propelled Syracuse this far had nothing. The missed shots continued to pile up.

Yet, somehow, he believed the shots would eventually fall, that Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins would somehow rediscover their stroke before it was too late. At least, he hoped so. The Orange has relied on the 3-point shot all season. There was nothing else he could do but sit back and hope.

But they never turned it around. In turn, Oklahoma demolished Syracuse here at FedExForum Friday night, 84-71, ending the Orange’s season in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim ends the year with 799 career wins. No. 800 will have to wait.

‘I can’t say Andy Rautins shouldn’t be shooting those shots because we’ve been living and dying with Andy and Eric, and they just missed open shots,’ Harris said.

The Orange missed its first 11 3-point attempts and finished the game 7-of-24 from deep. In the first half alone, Syracuse went 0-for-10. Devendorf and Rautins, who have been so crucial these past three weeks, went 5-of-17. Most of the makes were after the game had been decided.

Conversely, the Sooners shot an incredible 56.1 percent from the floor, including 9-of-20 (45 percent) from deep. Forward Blake Griffin, widely considered the best player in the country, lived up to the hype by compiling a game-high 30 points and 14 rebounds. Guard Tony Crocker was equally impressive, scoring 28 points and hitting six 3’s. Coming into the game, Crocker had hit one of his last 17 3-point attempts.

Jonny Flynn led the way for Syracuse with 22 points and six assists in 39 minutes of action, despite a back injury that left him hobbling for the entire second half. With 53 seconds remaining before halftime, Griffin plowed into Flynn, knocking him on his back. For the rest of the game, Flynn was visibly grimacing and holding his back in pain.

Flynn playing hurt put even more pressure on the other shooters to heat up. Afterward, Rautins took responsibility upon himself.

‘I feel largely to blame for this loss because as a shooter, that’s my job,’ he said. ‘I was getting the looks I wanted, but I just didn’t knock them down.’

For much of the game, Oklahoma was knocking just about everything down. Syracuse trailed by just four points with 4:47 left in the first half, but the Sooners went on a 16-7 run to take a 13-point lead into halftime. Harris said Boeheim convinced the team it had a chance to come back if it quickly reverted to its old self and started shooting.

Instead, Oklahoma quickly put the game away, going on a 7-0 run in the first 75 seconds of the half to push the lead up to an insurmountable 20 points. At one point, the Sooners hit six consecutive field goals to push the lead up to 24.

And it wasn’t all Griffin, who the Orange double-teamed the entire night. Guards Willie Warren, Austin Johnson and Crocker combined to hit five 3’s in a little more than nine minutes to start the half. Griffin kept kicking the ball out when the Syracuse defense collapsed. Unlike the Orange, the Sooners couldn’t miss.

‘Our worst nightmare came true,’ Flynn said. ‘Somebody other than Blake Griffin exploding for a big game.’

Syracuse eventually found its stroke. Down the stretch, it hit 7-of-13 from behind the arc and cut the deficit to as little as 14 with 5:21 remaining.

But it was too late. The damage had already been done. The Orange, which came to Memphis playing the best it had all season, will have to settle for a Sweet 16 exit. In the locker room after the game, just about every player emphasized this season was a successful one, that SU proved itself by advancing this far.

Still, they couldn’t help but think about what could have been.

‘We had really good looks in the first half when we went 0-for-10 from the 3,’ Boeheim said. ‘We just got in a big hole we couldn’t get ourselves out of. Again, we got pretty good shots. We got good shots. We got the shots we’ve been trying to get and we have been getting and making.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on March 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm