NEW YORK CITY — The only thing consistent about Kueth Duany, it seems, is his inconsistency.

The senior guard played one of his better games this season Thursday, scoring 16 points as the Syracuse men’s basketball team beat Georgetown, 74-69, in the Big East tournament quarterfinals. But 24 hours later, Duany totaled just six points in an 80-67 loss to Connecticut.

Before the tournament, Duany gave the Orangemen some sagely advice, warning them that a year earlier, Villanova bounced Syracuse in the first round.

‘Q knows what it’s about,’ SU freshman guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘He showed us how to play.’

Against Georgetown, Syracuse needed its lone senior’s guidance. The Orangemen struggled through the first half, never finding a flow and looking unnerved by Georgetown’s matchup-zone defense.

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

The following night, against Connecticut, Duany couldn’t hit anything. He made 2 of 10 and succumbed to the same shooting woes as the rest of the Orangemen, who shot 29 percent.

‘We got good looks,’ a befuddled Boeheim said. ‘Q got better looks than he got (Thursday).’

Ice cold

McNamara needed few words to describe his play Thursday against Georgetown.

‘I played awful,’ the freshman guard said.

McNamara made just 1 of 5 shots and missed his three 3-point attempts. He also turned the ball over four times, including three in the first half. On Friday, things got worse, as McNamara hit 1 of 7 shots for three points.

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

After the Georgetown game, McNamara iced a sore right elbow in the locker room. He injured it against Michigan State on Feb. 23 and aggravated it in the second half Thursday 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 up

Despite some last-minute campaigning from Boeheim, Anthony finished second last Tuesday in the 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 March 9, but it failed to sway enough Big East coaches.

Anthony did, however, win Rookie of the Year. 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.

Duany and forward Hakim Warrick also took home awards, with Duany winning the Sportsmanship award and Warrick being named Most Improved Player.

This and that

Georgetown forward Gerald Riley unintentionally poked Anthony in the eye with 2:25 left in Thursday’s 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’s all-time Big East tournament record stands at 34-21, second best in the conference. … Against Georgetown, Syracuse fans easily outnumbered the Hoya faithful, and the SU band even performed the national anthem. But Friday, the crowd seemed evenly split. At times, chants of ‘Let’s go Orange’ and ‘Lets go Huskies’ started at the same time, leading to indiscernible babble.

Published on March 17, 2003 at 12:00 pm