Rakeem Christmas stood at the only spot on the floor where he wasn’t winning, the reason Syracuse wasn’t — the foul line.

With 3.4 seconds remaining, the Orange trailed Miami by three. Christmas pushed up his first free throw off the right side of the rim. It rolled around the back of the iron, past the backboard and back at him from the left. He intentionally missed the second. SU had been reduced to fouling and hoping when it could have been getting fouled and icing its sternest test of the Atlantic Coast Conference season so far.

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim only glanced at the game’s final shot — a desperate Trevor Cooney attempt at an and-one 3. His Orange (14-6, 5-2 ACC) had lost to Miami, 66-62, despite outplaying the Hurricanes (14-5, 4-2) on Saturday in crucial areas of the court and for long stretches of the game.

But when SU stepped to the free-throw line, its battles in the low post didn’t matter. Cooney’s clutch shooting was irrelevant when the 30,677 in attendance in the Carrier Dome hushed themselves. Despite a pair of 10-point deficits, Syracuse dragged itself to within 15 feet of taking control against Miami only to miss 11 of the 19 free throws.

“Free throws are gimme buckets,” SU point guard Kaleb Joseph said. “We just got to make them.”

But they didn’t.

The home crowd reached its highest volume of the season when a Cooney 3 from the top of they key closed Miami’s lead to 49-46 with 8:29 remaining. Twenty-seven game seconds later, Michael Gbinije snagged a rebound, drew Omar Sherman’s fourth and UM’s ninth foul of the half and missed the front end of a one-and-one.

With 6:44 remaining and SU down by four, Cooney could leap into a crowd including Tonye Jekiri, come away with the ball and absorb a knock on the head from the 7-foot Miami center that put the Orange in the double bonus. But he couldn’t prevent his first free throw from rimming out.

Syracuse was shooting two and down by four when Gbinije’s first free throw bounced off the back rim with 1:17 to play. It was the last of his misses on the 2-for-6 free throw shooting day for the junior forward.

“We missed 11 free throws and it was a three-point game,” he said. “You know the math.”

Christmas had bullied Jekiri and Sherman to the basket. Tyler Roberson chipped in 10 points and 14 rebounds. The Orange had stopped Miami’s shooters from dominating the game.

In the Syracuse locker room after the game, Gbinije held a phone with a white piece of paper taped on the back. It read “What do you want? How are you going to make sure it happens?”

The SU fans that set a record for on-campus attendance this season wanted a win. All their team had to do was make free throws to make sure it happened.

Yet with 3.4 seconds left on the clock, Christmas was forced to miss intentionally for SU to even have a chance. He took his customary four dribbles, spun the ball in his hands and threw the ball off the front of the rim and into Miami’s hands.

The Carrier Dome crowd begged to celebrate a Cooney 3. It erupted for three of them.

It wanted to cheer a thunderous Christmas dunk, and it got to. It also wanted a win. It got a performance worthy of one from a team that could have made one happen.

Instead, a game in which the Carrier Dome crowd rose to its loudest shrills of the campaign, ended with groans and resigned handshakes.

“Overall this game was one thing,” Boeheim said. “That’s all it was, nothing else. We make some free throws, we win the game.”

Published on January 24, 2015 at 6:32 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_