NEW YORK CITY — As Carmelo Anthony missed his fifth consecutive free throw, he left his hand dangling in the air. He stood at the free-throw line, refusing to join his teammates in a scrum for the loose ball.

Anthony was tired. Tired from playing 40 minutes, scoring 27 points and carrying the Syracuse men’s basketball team. And tired of missing free throws that cost Syracuse a chance to catch Memphis late in last night’s 70-63 loss at Madison Square Garden.

“I was frustrated at the line,” Anthony said. “I got down on myself. You’re not supposed to be thinking about anything when you’re shooting free throws.”

The rest of the Orangemen were frustrated too. After the loss to a Memphis team that was missing two of its top five players because of suspensions, Syracuse players sat sullenly in the locker room.

Hakim Warrick pulled a headband over his eyes, while Josh Pace bowed his head. Kueth Duany harped away, encouraging Warrick to cheer up.

“We’re not going to play 35 bad games,” Duany told Warrick. “We played bad, they played good. You’ve got to keep your head up. I’m going to keep mine up.”

Against Memphis, though, there was plenty to get down about. Starters Warrick, Duany and Craig Forth shot a combined 5 of 23, leaving freshman Gerry McNamara and Anthony to score 41 of SU’s 63.

The Tigers, though, answered the Orangemen’s much ballyhooed pairing.

With about five minutes to play, Syracuse led, 61-60, and Anthony had just drawn the fourth foul on Memphis center Earl Barron. Anthony stepped to the line and clanked the first two of his five clutch free-throw attempts.

After easily penetrating the Syracuse zone, sophomore Anthony Rice swished a floater to give Memphis the lead for good. The Tigers’ fatal strike, though, came on the next sequence.

Anthony drove to the lane and was fouled by Rice again. And again, he choked on both free-throw attempts.

“Why do you think he missed the free throws?” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim asked. “He was tired.”

On the ensuing possession, Memphis freshman Jeremy Hunt drove down the right side of the lane, drew a bump from guard Josh Pace and dropped a floater into the basket. He converted the free throw and then buried two more on the following possession. Hunt’s flurry was part of a 12-0 run that gave Memphis a 68-61 lead and put the game away.

Fellow freshman Rodney Carney (12 points) and senior John Grice (17 points) aided Hunt. Carney helped the Tigers to a 43-34 halftime lead, scoring all his points in the opening 20 minutes and snatching a team-high nine rebounds.

Anthony scored 21 of his 27 points in the first half, before receiving assistance from McNamara in the second. McNamara drained three three-pointers in the second stanza, helping Syracuse close the gap.

Syracuse’s tandem, though, couldn’t top Memphis’ three equally inexperienced scorers.

“We have two good freshmen, and a third guy who’s only played eight career games,” Memphis coach John Calipari said. “I’ve been beating up on these guys for 25 days. I’ve been as hard on them as I have on anyone since I was 28 or 29 years old.”

Calipari considers the third member of Memphis’ scoring trio, Grice, almost equivalent to a freshman. Grice attended Southwest Tennessee Community College for two years and played eight games last year before being declared academically ineligible.

Calipari said he spent the preseason berating the inexperienced players in an effort to toughen them up.

“Grice is the one you should be talking about,” Calipari said. “He’s the real story.”

Maybe so, but it was Hunt who had SU talking after the game.

“I hadn’t really heard about him at all,” Anthony said. “I didn’t know who he was. He came through at the end though. He’s a good player. Tonight, he hit his free throws.”

Published on November 14, 2002 at 12:00 pm