As the halftime horn sounded at last night’s men’s basketball game between Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the SU pep band serenaded the Orange into the locker room. Then, all of a sudden, the Carrier Dome went silent. Cut the drums, trumpets and saxophones. The music squealed to a stop, as if an out-of-towner just walked into a biker bar.

Gerry McNamara lay on the court, clutching his left leg. He was helped in the backcourt by Josh Pace, then by assistant strength and conditioning coach Todd Forcier and team physician Irving Rafael. Together, they eased him into the locker room.

Nearly 20 minutes later, McNamara started the second half, making cuts that seemed like little was wrong. It seemed he had just sprained his left ankle, but after the game, he didn’t offer an exact diagnosis.

‘I don’t know,’ McNamara said. ‘I’m not sure what happened. It hurts.’

McNamara hurt his ankle on SU’s last possession of the first half, when Louie McCroskey missed a jumper as with two seconds left. It appeared he rolled his ankle on a Pitt defender.

While the rest of the Orange sprinted out of the tunnel after halftime, McNamara slowly walked to join his teammates a few seconds later. He fired a few practice 3-pointers under the watch of assistant coach Mike Hopkins. Apparently, Hopkins liked what he saw.

‘He’s alright,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He got banged up pretty good. He’ll need a day or two off.’

Chevon Troutman, Pitt’s big-time bruiser, once again threw his weight around against Syracuse. While it seemed the Orange was intent on stopping the 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior, they soon realized there was little they could do to stop him legally.

Troutman victimized SU for 20 points, 16 of which came off free throws. Troutman was 16-of-20 from the line, and only 2-of-2 from the field.

‘He’s good inside,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s very strong. He’s been good inside all year and very physical.’

Since leaving the starting lineup on Dec. 11, 2004 in a game against Binghamton, sophomore Demetris Nichols has hardly been heard from. He seldom moves from the bench and when he does, he usually returns within a few minutes.

Nichols played eight minutes against Pittsburgh, the most he’s played since the last time SU faced Pitt on Jan. 29. On Saturday against Villanova, Nichols never made it off the bench.

‘I felt good,’ Nichols said. ‘My shots just didn’t fall. I just gotta get better.’

Thought he didn’t score any points on 0-of-2 shooting, he had open shots. Previously, Boeheim wasn’t happy with Nichols because of his poor shot selection.

‘He hasn’t been making them in practice,’ Boeheim said. ‘Hopefully, the next few days we’ll get him going.’

Pittsburgh has dominated Syracuse in rebounding for the last two years thanks to Troutman and center Chris Taft.

Monday night was no different as Pitt again out rebounded SU, 41-32. Troutman and Taft each had 10 rebounds while Craig Forth was the only SU player with 10 or more rebounds.

‘The first half we didn’t rebound. That was the story,’ Boeheim said.

Pitt out rebounded SU, 26-14, in the first half while SU out rebounded Pitt, 18-15, in the second. In SU’s earlier loss to Pitt this season, the Orange was out rebounded, 39-28.

‘We need to do better rebounding in the zone,’ Warrick said. ‘They just do a really good job going after the ball. I think they out hustled us. They just wanted it more tonight.’

Syracuse had 11 turnovers in the game and Pitt had 18. It was the second most for the Panthers all season. … Josh Pace had zero points in the game. It was the first time all season he was held scoreless. … Syracuse shot 72.2 percent from the line. It was the best the Orange has shot as a team since Jan. 22 against West Virginia.

Published on February 14, 2005 at 12:00 pm