NEW YORK – With the Connecticut men’s basketball team both in his rear-view mirror and looming in the distance, Gerry McNamara had a small window for a breakout game. Twice this season, Connecticut’s defense has swarmed McNamara, refusing to allow him easy shots. So, the Syracuse men’s basketball team’s junior guard took out his frustrations on Rutgers. He scored 25 points on 6-of-9 shooting, erasing any hopes of a Scarlet Knights second-half comeback.

The Orange defeated Rutgers, 81-57, in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.

‘I think I picked my spots a lot better tonight than I have been,’ McNamara said. ‘I just stayed patient, and when it came, I just took it.’

McNamara looked nothing like the player the Huskies forced into 4-for-16 shooting last Saturday. Instead of settling for shots, he waited patiently for open looks. Then, he made the most of them.

Twice, during an early first half 10-0 Syracuse run, McNamara pulled up in transition and knocked down 3s.

McNamara said while some teams devote two or even three defenders to guarding him, Rutgers tried to slow him with just one defender. The strategy backfired.

Much of McNamara’s damage came in the second half when Rutgers cut a 25-point halftime lead to 15 with 7:13 remaining. Though a comeback remained highly unlikely, McNamara promptly drained two 3s, pumping the lead back to 21. He shot 4 of 5 from 3-point range after halftime

‘He jumped up and hit two long 3s, I mean long 3s,’ Rutgers head coach Gary Waters said. ‘I thought it changed the whole complexion.’

Now, McNamara must figure out Connecticut. In two meetings, McNamara’s shot a combined 8 for 34. McNamara said it’s a matter of repeating what he did tonight.

SU head coach Jim Boeheim said McNamara may not even need a repeat performance. Boeheim said McNamara’s improved this season at penetrating and finding open teammates. Often, though, those teammates don’t knock down open looks. That showed last Saturday against Connecticut as well, when outside of McNamara, Syracuse shot 0 of 12 from 3-point range. Orange senior forward Hakim Warrick, though, said the Orange needs to do a better job creating looks for McNamara.’We’ve got to set more screens, get more movement,’ Warrick said. ‘We can’t force and rush things and get him going. Once he gets going, we don’t need to do anything else.’

Tenacious D

Easily lost in one of Syracuse best offensive showings of the season was SU’s tremendous first-half defense.

Syracuse forced turnovers on the Scarlet Knights first two possessions, and Rutgers’ fortune didn’t improve. Rutgers scored 22 first-half points – tied for the Orange’s third-best defensive showing of the season – and committed eight first-half turnovers.

‘We were just really active,’ Warrick said. ‘We didn’t give their shooters too many easy looks.’

Early on, Rutgers looked to punish Syracuse inside, forcing the ball to 6-foot-7 forward Ollie Bailey. But that strategy failed when Orange head coach Jim Boeheim replaced starting center Craig Forth with Darryl Watkins. The 6-foot-11 sophomore helped clog the middle, forcing Rutgers outside.

‘Mookie and I were a presence inside,’ Forth said.

In the two teams’ first meeting, an 86-84 SU victory on Jan. 24, Rutgers shot 46 percent from 3-point range in the first half. Thursday, the Orange held Rutgers to 20 percent 3-point shooting and 23 percent shooting overall for the first half.

If anything has helped improve Syracuse’s defense and rebounding, it’s been the addition of Terrence Roberts to the starting lineup. Since his insertion on Feb. 23 against St. John’s, Syracuse has only been outrebounded once in four games.

‘We knew we needed to keep the ball out of the middle and get out on their outside shooters,’ Roberts said,

Conn they win?

When Warrick saw the bracket for the Big East tournament, he couldn’t help but imagine a potential semifinal meeting with Connecticut.

SU’s win over Rutgers set up its third meeting of the season with UConn. The Huskies held on to defeat Georgetown, 66-62, to advance to Friday’s 9 p.m. semifinal against Syracuse.

UConn defeated the Orange 74-66 on Feb. 7 at the Carrier Dome and on March 5, 88-70, in Storrs, Conn. SU’s troubles against the Huskies date back several years. Connecticut defeated the Orange twice in 2002-03, including eliminating Syracuse in the Big East tournament semifinals. Last season, the teams split their two meetings.

SU’s starters rested for much of the second half against Rutgers, while UConn struggled to pull out a close win. The Orange hopes the rest will propel it.

‘The third time’s a charm,’ Warrick said. ‘It would be a crushing blow to lose three games to one team in a season. This is the biggest game of the season. Last game (against UConn) was the biggest game. This one’s even bigger.’

Published on March 11, 2005 at 12:00 pm