Dec. 20, 2004 – Syracuse guard Louie McCroskey sank the lay-up, fighting back after a 10-0 Cornell run early in the first half.

But all eyes swooped to Gerry McNamara. The junior guard was writhing on the court in pain.

The Carrier Dome crowd of 15,248 hushed as McNamara leaned against the scorer’s table, clutching his left knee and thigh. He limped to the locker room, his weight on a trainer’s shoulder, and he barked over his shoulder at the referees. No foul was called on the play.

A last-second jump shot by McCroskey, a sophomore, was all that kept the Syracuse men’s basketball team from trailing the Cornell Big Red at the end of a dismal first half. But Syracuse used its size, power and full-court press to overwhelm Cornell in the final 20 minutes, strutting to an 82-69 victory.

‘It just summed up pretty much the way the game was going, when he went down,’ said senior forward Hakim Warrick, who led SU with 19 points, of McNamara.

McNamara returned to the game after halftime, and, though he hobbled for a few minutes, his pain seemed to disappear by the end of his 11 second-half minutes. His stroke suffered, though, as McNamara shot 3-for-8 for eight points. He hit one 3 and two lay-ups.

McNamara’s struggles epitomized Syracuse’s first half against Cornell, a team SU should have dismissed early. The Big Red (3-6) led for a combined 14:03 in the first half, scoring 10 unanswered points to take an early 14-8 lead. Without McCroskey’s last-second jumper, Cornell would have led going into halftime.

Meanwhile, foibles defined SU (10-1) early. McNamara threw an alley-oop past Warrick, and center Craig Forth barely kept it in bounds. Warrick fumbled under the basket, only to miss when he regained possession. McNamara missed two free throws. Sophomores Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins were both charged with goaltending, the first on offense and the second on defense.

‘We are nowhere near anywhere close to what I think is a good basketball team yet,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘If we don’t change, it will be very evident to everybody very soon. We’re just not there.’

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Boeheim railed the Orange’s sloppy first half and its failure to stop Cornell’s 3-point threat, even in the second half, when SU dominated. Led by senior Cody Toppert, who hit seven 3s, the Big Red made 15 of 24 3-point attempts.

The second half opened with Syracuse just a point ahead, 36-35, but the Orange jolted Cornell with a switch to full-court press. The Big Red players, nearly all smaller than their Orange counterparts, struggled through the press.

Cornell’s game soon devolved into panicked turnovers, desperate timeouts and Syracuse slam dunks. The press held Cornell scoreless for the first 4:19, and even then, senior Eric Taylor hit a lay-up only because Syracuse was slow to get back defensively.

‘Against any type of pressure, it’s always a matter of maintaining poise,’ Toppert said. ‘The length that their press poses is something that creates a major problem for most teams.’

Paralyzed by SU’s pressure, Cornell spent timeouts to escape double-teams and lost its first-half confidence and composure. As it became harder to penetrate the Syracuse defense, Toppert’s 3s came from longer range.

‘I was a good 5 feet beyond the arc,’ Toppert said.

Those deep shots were all Cornell had left, and they barely kept the Big Red in the game. The remaining minutes drew a clear distinction between the strong, athletic Orange and Cornell’s small, outside shooters. The Orange won that battle almost every time.

Twenty-four of Cornell’s 34 second-half points came from 3s. The Orange scored 54 points in the paint; the Big Red scored 14.

But behind the 13-point victory was a scary first half for Syracuse.

‘He challenged us to go out there and play defense,’ Warrick said of Boeheim’s halftime speech. ‘He shouldn’t have to do that.’

Published on December 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm