NEW YORK CITY – The memory still etched in his mind, Kueth Duany warned his teammates.

‘Kueth told us about how we lost this game last year and it put us out,’ SU freshman Carmelo Anthony said. ‘So that gave us motivation.’

Last season, Syracuse lost, to Villanova, in the first round of the Big East tournament. No way would Duany let that happen again. He scored 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range.

Syracuse needed the boost from its lone senior when its offense sputtered through the first half. The Orangemen never got into a flow and seemed unnerved by Georgetown’s matchup-zone defense.

But Duany held Syracuse in the game, hitting all three of his first-half shots for 10 points. He also buried both of his 3-point tries.

‘They just gave me some open looks,’ Duany said. ‘I felt like I had my shot from warm-ups.’

‘Kueth was tremendous tonight,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We weren’t doing anything in the first half, and he hit a couple jumpers.’

One after a timeout with 3:04 left brought Syracuse within three. Then, following two Georgetown free throws, Duany drilled an NBA-range 3-pointer to cut the Hoyas’ lead to 36-34.

But Duany’s biggest play came late in the second half. With 22 seconds left and Syracuse clinging to a 69-67 lead, he was credited with a steal.

To Boeheim it looked more like a gift. Replays showed the ball slipped out of Georgetown guard Ashanti Cook’s hands as he attempted a pass.

‘I’m not giving him credit for that steal,’ Boeheim quipped. ‘You’d have to be listening on the radio to give him that one.’

Off nightGerry McNamara needed few words to describe his performance.

‘I played awful,’ the freshman guard said.

McNamara made just 1 of 5 shots and missed his three 3-point attempts. Worse, he turned the ball over four times, including three in the first half.

‘He struggled a little bit,’ Boeheim said. ‘He left his feet a little bit and never really played his game.’

Said McNamara: ‘(Boeheim) said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘I’ll be ready (tonight),’ and he said, ‘I know you will.’ ‘

Before tonight, McNamara will try to relieve the swelling in his sore right elbow. He injured it against Michigan State on Feb. 23 and aggravated it in the second half last night when he was steamrolled while attempting a layup.

After writhing in pain for a moment, McNamara stood up, flexed his elbow a few times and headed to the free-throw line. The 93 percent free-throw shooter missed both, drawing gasps from the crowd.

McNamara denied the elbow had anything to do with the misses.

‘No,’ McNamara said without hesitation. ‘I don’t want to talk about the misses.’

Runner upDespite some last-minute campaigning from Boeheim, Anthony finished second Tuesday in Big East Player-of-the-Year voting. Troy Bell, Boston College’s point guard, won the award.

Boeheim made a pitch for Anthony following Syracuse’s win against Rutgers on Sunday, but it failed to sway enough Big East coaches.

Anthony did, however, win Rookie-of-the-Year honors. He averaged 22.5 points and 10 rebounds this regular season and set a conference record by winning the Rookie-of-the-Week award 10 times.

This and thatGeorgetown forward Gerald Riley unintentionally poked Anthony in the eye with 2:25 left in the game. Anthony paced the floor and rubbed his eye, and SU called timeout to give him time to recover. Anthony never came out of the game and afterward said the eye felt fine. … Syracuse beat Georgetown three times in a season for the first time in school history. … SU upped its all-time Big East tournament record to 34-20, second best in the conference. … The Orangemen donned their home whites last night. Quite fitting, considering the SU fans easily outnumbered and drowned out the Georgetown faithful. The Syracuse band also performed the national anthem.

Published on March 13, 2003 at 12:00 pm