It was pandemonium defined. During the National Anthem, Gerry McNamara’s mug was shown on the Carrier Dome’s big screen, causing uproar. A video montage of McNamara’s career highlights was played, followed by the Senior Day festivities, where a teary McNamara was honored. It drew a heartfelt appreciation from 33,633 adorers, the largest crowd ever to watch Syracuse play in the Carrier Dome.

Oh yeah. There was a game played, too.

McNamara rallied the fans and his teammates, but the largest on-campus crowd in college basketball history and a team which is stuck on the NCAA Tournament bubble – and perhaps on the wrong side of it – couldn’t overcome No. 4 Villanova. The Wildcats outran, outshot and ultimately outscored the Orange, 92-82.

It wasn’t McNamara’s fault, who lived up to his billing with 29 points and eight assists. The crowd serenaded him with ‘Ger-ry, Ger-ry’ chants seemingly every time he made a big play and signs lined the Carrier Dome thanking the senior guard and praising his achievements.

‘It was emotion the whole game, really,’ McNamara said. ‘Every step of the way was heavy eyes and heavy feet … at some point, we had to start the game.’

An optimist would say the Orange’s prospects looked gloomy after the game’s opening five minutes. A realist would say they looked impossible. The Wildcats (24-3, 14-2 Big East) jumped to a 12-1 lead, powered by a four-guard offense that’s extremely efficient from 3-point range and extremely disruptive on defense. In short, they played like a team ranked No. 4 in the nation. And Syracuse (19-11, 7-9) was playing like a team that lost to DePaul, 108-69, on Thursday night.

The offense wasn’t the problem, though. Between McNamara’s 29 points and freshman Eric Devendorf’s 19 points, SU played well offensively. The Orange is 9-2 this season when eclipsing 80 points. It was the defense, or rather, Villanova’s offense, that gave the Orange fits.

‘Our biggest problem all year has been stopping people,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I’m disappointed at this stage of the year; we couldn’t be a better defensive team … the way we’ve defended, we’re lucky we’ve won seven games in the league.’

But things changed. Forward Terrence Roberts received an alley-oop from McNamara. Guard Eric Devendorf was fouled while converting a 3-pointer. The fans became a factor again. The confidence was back in SU. It even gained the lead three different occasions in the first half. It was as if there was a team-wide illumination where they collectively realized, ‘Maybe we can beat these guys.’

‘We came out with a lot of emotion because we know how much this game meant to us, being Gerry’s last game in the Dome, so we want to come out and let our emotions play our game,’ junior center Darryl Watkins said. ‘We got out of a slump and we saw we had a chance against them. That boosted up our confidence and we tried making a run for it.’

The Orange didn’t, but it kept the game entertaining. Despite a series of Villanova runs, SU flirted with a comeback for parts of the second half. Even when the game seemed out of reach, McNamara turned in a pair of 3-pointers in a 32-second span with less than 3:30 remaining to cut an 11-point deficit to five points.

But Villanova’s guards – particularly Kyle Lowry, who registered 17 points, six assists and eight rebounds despite being the shortest player on the court – kept dissecting SU’s press and finding open looks. Wildcats senior Allan Ray finished with 28 points – 19 of which came in the first half – and star Randy Foye scored 21 points while tallying six assists and six rebounds.

The Wildcats scored 39 points from 3-pointers, converting 41.9 percent of their attempts. The shooting prowess continued from the foul line, where they made 25-of-32 free throws. This compares to SU, which shot 20-of-31 from the free throw line (junior forward Terrence Roberts only made 1-of-7) and 8-of-25 from the perimeter. Five of the 3-pointers came from McNamara, for whom the audience’s applause only intensified as the game went on.

The game seemed to be a footnote on the day, but certainly not on the season. After losing to Georgetown last weekend and being upset by DePaul, SU needed to beat Villanova to reach 20 regular-season wins and finish .500 in the Big East. It was a lofty task, considering the Wildcats decimated SU when the teams met in January and are a possible No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Now Syracuse must shoot for 20 wins in the opening round of the Big East tournament against Cincinnati on Wednesday afternoon.

‘It’s tough to go out with a loss, but if I’m going to lose my last game in the Dome, it’s going to be to a top five team,’ McNamara said. ‘I’m happy to say we stuck with them every step. They made runs and we made runs. But when it came down to end, they just had a little more than us.’

Published on March 5, 2006 at 12:00 pm