Entering last night’s game, the Syracuse men’s basketball team appeared to have sewed up the wounds caused by its offensive problems. Turns out it was only a Band-Aid, not a tourniquet, that patched together the Orangemen offense.

Forward Hakim Warrick dominated inside for Syracuse, scoring 28 points and snaring 16 rebounds, seven of which were offensive, and guard Gerry McNamara managed to score 20 points on a night when he couldn’t find his shot. But the rest of the Orangemen combined for only 24 points in last night’s 84-72 loss to Notre Dame in the Carrier Dome.

The largest culprit was center Craig Forth, who scored zero points in 21 minutes, a step back for the arboreal center, who had become a reliable scoring option for Syracuse. SU’s other two starters, Josh Pace and Demetris Nichols, combined to score just nine points.

The paltry contribution from SU’s role players translated into a poor offensive game for the Orangemen two days after their greatest outburst of the season. Coming off a 91-74 win at Miami, in which SU shot 66 percent, SU floundered at home against the Irish.

‘A lot of guys played like crap tonight,’ Forth said. ‘Myself included.’

‘We just didn’t play well offensively,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We come out of the best offensive game we’ve had all year. We got a lot of good shots. We just didn’t convert on them.’

Even Warrick, whose 28 points were a game high, misfired in the first half. He shot 2-of-8, but still scored 10 points because of 6-for-8 free-throw shooting.

Warrick worked as hard for his points as he has all season. Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey assigned the bruising center Tom Timmermans to cover Warrick, choosing to fight finesse with power. Timmermans defended Warrick tough, fouling him enough times that Warrick took 12 free throws – and made 10.

When a reporter suggested that Timmermans defense slowed Warrick, Boeheim sarcastically disagreed.

‘(Timmermans) held (Warrick) to 28 points,’ Boeheim deadpanned. ‘So I guess that’s pretty good.’

But Timmermans’ defense proved effective in some ways. Timmermans played Warrick with man defense for just about the whole game, a tactic teams seldom employ against the slippery Warrick. That enabled other Irish players to stick to the perimeter or prevent Warrick from dishing the ball to open teammates inside.

Last night, it seemed, even if those teammates were open, it wouldn’t have mattered. Syracuse shot 38 percent for the game. Considering the woes that plagued SU’s offense during its losing streak had seemingly ended, that number bodes poorly for Syracuse. Instead of using the strong Miami performance as a springboard, Syracuse made it look like a fluke.

‘We’re primarily an offensive team,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’ve got to score points to win. We beat them (at Notre Dame) by outscoring them.’

That game was during SU’s hottest streak of the season, when the Orangemen used a high-flying, diverse offense to beat Missouri and Notre Dame on the road. Against Notre Dame, for example, Pace, a guard, scored 12 points and Billy Edelin scored 17.

‘Everyone’s got their part,’ McNamara said. ‘Craig, Jeremy. Those guys are the X-factors. Josh Pace – he can fill up a stat sheet.’

Last night, though, the stat sheets were empty, making Warrick’s hard-nosed performance against Timmermans go for naught.

‘It doesn’t feel good,’ Warrick said. ‘No matter if you score 100 points, a loss is a loss.’

Published on February 16, 2004 at 12:00 pm