WASHINGTON, D.C. – First, what most have already forgotten: The tedium.

‘It was horrible, man,’ Syracuse freshman Louie McCroskey said. ‘It was tough watching that game.’

And it should have been a tough defeat to overcome. Beckoning what seemed like an apocalyptic loss for its NCAA Tournament hopes, the Syracuse men’s basketball team, with an excruciating mix of missed shots and bonehead turnovers, played as poorly as it has done all season.

Now, what most are still talking about: The euphoria.

‘Just an incredible shot,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.

The game-winning 3-pointer – Gerry McNamara, leaning into a trio of defenders for an off-balance buzzer-beater – played on every sports highlight show in the country Saturday night. And the whole eight-second sequence not only inched Syracuse to a 57-54 win against Georgetown but also provided an ending so dramatic that it eclipsed all ugliness to precede it.

One shot, naturally, didn’t nullify SU’s heap of misses and miscues. But it did allow the Orangemen, and McNamara especially, the boost they so desperately needed with just four games left in the season. Syracuse (17-6; 7-5 Big East) avoided its sixth loss in nine games. McNamara, meanwhile, sugarcoated a recent shooting slump with his biggest shot of the year.

If sticking 3-pointers isn’t the hallmark of McNarama’s game, then it’s certainly the willingness to try. Yet after missing seven of his first eight shots inside the MCI Center, both attributes – the accuracy and the aggression – were gone. For a 10-minute span in the second half, in fact, McNamara, despite several open looks, didn’t try a single field goal.

‘Gerry started to worry about his shot,’ Boeheim said. ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen him, in all the years I’ve watched him, where he worried about how he was playing. It affected his game. I saw him make some turnovers I’d never seen him make. He made some bad decisions I’ve never seen him make.’

During a timeout late in the half, Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins pulled McNamara aside. ‘Remember last year,’ Hopkins told him.

That cued the mental flashback. To last season, when McNamara, also against Georgetown, missed seven of his first eight shots only to hit his last four. To last season, when Syracuse made a habit of chin-rattling comebacks and memorable finishes. To last season, when things almost always turned out as desired.

Suddenly, McNamara had it, and at just the right time. Barely more than five minutes remained, and Syracuse trailed one of the Big East’s poorest teams by six points. Then McNamara hit a deep 3, cutting the lead in half. Next possession, after a Hoya bucket, McNamara sank another from the right side of the arc, drawing a foul in the process. After he converted the free throw, Syracuse trailed by one, 49-48.

With that, the crowd of 15,389 – roughly half composed of Syracuse fans – cheered lustily. As this rivalry game arched into its denouement, it had finally discovered its characteristic and classic drama.

To start, few Georgetown-Syracuse games had ever been marked by such unsightliness. The Orangemen accounted for a season-high 25 turnovers, and many of those were unforced. By halftime, they’d managed just 22 points. Their scoring leader at that point? A three-way tie between Hakim Warrick, Josh Pace and McCroskey – all of whom had five points.

‘It was the small mistakes,’ Warrick said, who finished with a game-high 19 points. ‘Dropping easy passes. Throwing passes away.’

Said Boeheim: ‘The whole game, offensively, we just couldn’t get anything going, just making unforced turnovers. When we got shots, we weren’t making them.’

Mercifully for Syracuse, Georgetown matched the sloppiness. Georgetown shot 27.7 percent, and even the Hoyas’ established scorers – Gerald Riley and Brandon Bowman – looked like liabilities.

‘It’s like dental surgery, watching (those) misses,’ Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said.

What finished off Esherick’s struggling team proved even more painful. A tip-in by Georgetown center Courtland Freeman with eight seconds tied the game at 54. Boeheim signaled a timeout and mapped a quick play, but it would soon become irrelevant. Warrick grabbed the inbounds pass as planned, but he couldn’t make a quick pass. So instead, he dribbled awkwardly down the court and stumbled into a spin-move once he reached the Syracuse 3-point line.

Then, with three seconds remaining, he saw McNamara.

‘I had it at the end of the game,’ McNamara said. ‘Sometimes you just don’t feel right. Physically you don’t feel like you’re into it. That’s how I felt. Once the adrenaline started pumping in a close game, that turned into a positive.’

Moments later, following his most indelible bucket of the season, McNamara stormed back down the court, arms flexed in celebration, already swarmed by a few Syracuse fans.

‘Getting out of here with a win the way we played…’ Boeheim said, before pausing. ‘Two weeks from now, nobody will remember the score.’

Published on February 22, 2004 at 12:00 pm