When he’s on, Elijah Ingram can keep St. John’s in a game all by himself. When he’s off, Ingram can shoot his team right out of one.

Last night, Ingram shot down the Red Storm’s chances in a 66-60 loss to No. 15 Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. The freshman guard tried a conference-record 20 3-pointers. He made just two and missed his final 18. Providence’s Donta Wade, who attempted 17 on Feb. 23, 2000, at Notre Dame, held the previous record.

‘Ingram … ‘ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim mumbled while perusing his stat sheet. ‘Wow, I didn’t even see that one. They can’t shoot that well.’

In the first half, Ingram made 2 of 10 3-point attempts. He buried the game’s first basket, a 3-pointer from the right wing, and made a layup on the next possession.

Then things worsened. He made one of his next two shots, before missing six to end the half.

‘You don’t count shots during the game,’ St. John’s head coach Mike Jarvis said of his team’s Big East-record 41 3-point attempts (The previous record was 38, set by Seton Hall on Jan. 27, 2001, against West Virginia). ‘You only keep track of good shots. Ninety percent of them were good shots.’

Maybe Jarvis should have been counting Ingram’s.

St. John’s point guard Marcus Hatten had considerable success penetrating the middle of Syracuse’s zone and kicking the ball out to Ingram. Although the SU defense collapsed to stop Hatten, leaving Ingram open, he still struggled.

By the start of the second half, Ingram was already sore. An injured left ankle hampered his shot. He sprained the ankle in practice Thursday, and the injury forced him to miss Saturday’s game against Providence. Ingram also said his legs felt heavy.

Most damaged of all, though, was Ingram’s psyche.

‘I thought about (taking fewer shots),’ Ingram said. ‘I didn’t want to shoot really. But everyone was telling me to keep shooting, keep shooting.’

Ingram’s shot is ugly. The 166-pound freshman looks like he needs every ounce to hoist his shots. His 3-pointers appear more like hopeless heaves, as his entire body lurches toward the basket.

‘We were talking about his shot a lot on the bench,’ Syracuse freshman Carmelo Anthony said. ‘But once he gets in a rhythm, he’ll make them.’

Past experience proves Anthony right. Against Miami on Feb. 2, Ingram made 5 of 7 from 3-point range, leading the Red Storm to a 77-74 win. Entering last night’s game, Ingram was shooting 39.3 percent from 3-point range.

If he had equaled his 3-point shooting average, St. John’s would have won by 12.

‘Every game you lose, you think about the stuff you could have done differently,’ Ingram said.

Other Red Storm shooters struggled, too. Hatten, the Big East’s third-leading scorer, launched 11 3-point attempts and connected on two.

‘If the number we took was 41,’ Hatten said, ‘we should have made 17 or 19. A lot of them were open looks.’

Instead of Hatten’s approximated total, the Red Storm made only nine.

‘I tell them to keep shooting that damn ball,’ Jarvis said. ‘At the end of the game, I was hoping (Hatten) would penetrate, dish the ball out and (Ingram) would make one so we could leave on a positive note.’

It didn’t happen. Instead, when the ball arrived in Ingram’s hands and the game had been decided, he did what he’d done all game. He missed.

Published on February 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm