NEW YORK CITY – Seems a comeback win – especially one where the Syracuse men’s basketball team overcomes 15 lead changes and 29 points from Mike Sweetney – should impress head coach Jim Boeheim.

Not with these Orangemen.

‘Nothing new,’ Boeheim ho-hummed. ‘That’s typical of the way we’ve played all season.’

Indeed, No. 1-seeded Syracuse fought back from a second-half deficit for the 13th time this season and beat No. 5 Georgetown for the third time. Throw in last-minute heroics, and the Orangemen’s 74-69 win last night in front of 19,528 at Madison Square Garden in the Big East tournament quarterfinals looks much like the typical SU regular-season win.

Last night’s victory advanced Syracuse to the semifinals, where it will meet No. 2 Connecticut tonight at 9. The Huskies downed No. 3 Seton Hall, 83-70, last night to advance.

SU has little time to recuperate from the pounding it took from Sweetney, who walked away with game highs in points and rebounds (13). But, for the third time this season, Georgetown’s junior center also walked away a loser.

On March 1, Syracuse beat Georgetown, 93-84, in overtime despite 31 points from Sweetney. A month earlier, the Orangemen survived Sweetney’s 32 and won, 88-80, at the Carrier Dome.

‘I thought this game was going to be an up-and-down game,’ Sweetney said. ‘It was, kind of. They slowed it down, packed it in the zone, basically the same kind of game.’

Sweetney hoped for a different kind of ending, and for a while, it seemed he might get it.The game seesawed during the last 10 minutes, and Syracuse clung precariously to a 68-67 advantage with 37.8 seconds left.

‘We’ve been in this kind of game so many times this season,’ SU forward Carmelo Anthony said. ‘I wasn’t worried.’

Perhaps Anthony’s team-high 21 points helped ease his nerves. But SU’s defense was the difference.

Leading, 69-67, with less than 30 seconds left, the Orangemen set themselves as the Hoyas walked up the ball. Georgetown worked it around the perimeter until Ashanti Cook flubbed a pass. SU guard Kueth Duany snatched control of the ball, and SU took control of the game following two Gerry McNamara free throws that pushed the lead to 71-67.

Syracuse’s second-half comeback was set up by a 41-39 halftime deficit that sprung mostly from Sweetney, who scored 14 first-half points on 6-of-11 shooting.

Even when Sweetney elected not to shoot, the Hoyas’ offense moved through his 6-foot-8 presence at the top of the lane. On one possession, Sweetney took the ball near the top of the key, and while the Syracuse defense converged, he dished to Darrel Owens for an open layup, giving the Hoyas a 27-20 lead.

‘The first half we were so concerned with Sweetney we were giving other guys some easy shots,’ Boeheim said. ‘The second half we did a good job shutting down the other guys.’

Indeed, save a Gerald Riley jump shot with 4:13 left, all of Georgetown’s 28 second-half points came from either Sweetney or Brandon Bowman. Sweetney totaled 15 in the second half, while Bowman contributed 11 of his 18.

Syracuse compacted its zone after halftime, forcing Sweetney to either shoot from near the foul line or dish to the perimeter. The Hoyas struggled from the outside, shooting 33 percent in the second half compared to 49 percent in the first.

‘I thought Syracuse did a really good job on defense of collapsing back on Mike,’ GU head coach Craig Esherick said, ‘and really making it very difficult at the beginning of the possession for us to get the ball to Mike. Clearly, we didn’t shoot the ball as well as I would’ve liked on the perimeter.’

Said SU forward Hakim Warrick: ‘We knew they were going to get it to Sweetney. We just wanted to limit what other players could do. We did a good job limiting them in the second half.

‘This is a real good win for us. It shows us this is just like the regular season.’

Published on March 13, 2003 at 12:00 pm