A white bandage bridged Syracuse center Craig Forth’s nose after last night’s game, making the 7-footer look like a battered prizefighter.

Quite fitting. Scrappy St. John’s had just taken the No. 15 Syracuse men’s basketball team the proverbial 12 rounds.

Hampered by the Red Storm’s quick, physical play, Syracuse needed timely shooting last night to win, 66-60, in front of 21,044 in the Carrier Dome. Syracuse (18-4, 9-3 Big East) improved to 15-0 at home and remains in sole possession of first place in the Big East West division.

Last night, smaller, quicker St. John’s players greeted Forth and fellow center Jeremy McNeil with hard swats every time the big men touched the ball. The referees used their whistles sparingly, calling Red Storm players for 17 total fouls, four of which came as St. John’s hacked desperately in the last minute.

‘Other teams don’t swat down and knock at the ball as much,’ Forth said. ‘This team does it a lot. They’re good at knocking the ball loose.’

Forth and McNeil’s five combined turnovers were a fraction of the Orangemen’s 26, a season high and the most since their 20 in a 73-60 loss at Pittsburgh on Jan. 18. Against Notre Dame on Saturday, SU committed only four giveaways. Syracuse reached that mark four minutes into last night’s game.

With 11 minutes remaining in the first half, SU and SJU (12-10, 5-7) had combined for 13 turnovers and 14 points. In total, the game’s assist-to-turnover ratio was 21 to 41.

No Orangemen could plead innocent afterward, as none finished with more assists than turnovers. Among the worst offenders was Hakim Warrick, who had six turnovers and zero assists.

But Carmelo Anthony’s team-high 21 points and 13 rebounds survived the bevy of turnovers.

‘This is probably one of the most physical games I’ve played in,’ Warrick said. ‘The refs let a lot of stuff go.’

‘We should turn the ball over 15 or 16 times against this team,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said, perhaps realizing the Red Storm entered leading the Big East with a plus-5.67 turnover margin. ‘If we eliminate those 10 turnovers, it’s an eight- or 10-point game.’

Especially since St. John’s shot 29.3 percent. The Red Storm also went 9 of 41 on 3-pointers, breaking a Big East record for 3-point tries.

‘We didn’t make shots,’ St. John’s head coach Mike Jarvis said. ‘Hopefully, the rest of the season, we’ll make shots.’

For most of the game, the Orangemen failed to make shots, too. They responded with 44.9 percent shooting and attempted 49 shots, their lowest total since the loss at Pittsburgh.

Syracuse’s shooting picked up at the most critical juncture, though, especially when a 3-pointer from Kueth Duany tied the score at 51 with 4:58 left.

Duany finished with 17 points. He also hit 2 of 4 from 3-point range and collected six rebounds.

‘That’s what he’s there for,’ SU point guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘He’s our senior and he’s our leader. He led us tonight.’

SU badly needed some leadership after the Red Storm broke off a 13-0 second-half run. With 8:49 remaining, Marcus Hatten — who finished with a game-high 22 points on 9-of-25 shooting — capped the run with a 3-pointer to give St. John’s a 45-42 lead.

The Orangemen responded by nailing seven consecutive shots to snatch a 58-54 lead with 2:10 left. St. John’s cut the deficit to two but never got any closer.

Elijah Ingram’s missed 3 at the other end — one of his 18 missed 3-pointers — all but ended the game. St. John’s fouled, but SU hit 6 of 7 free throws to sound the final bell.

‘That’s one of the most physical games we played in,’ said Anthony, who contributed eight of his 21 during Syracuse’s late run. ‘I saw it against Pitt and Georgetown, but not like tonight.’

Published on February 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm