With 2:43 left and the Syracuse men’s basketball team leading by two points, 67-65, Josh Pace turned the ball over on consecutive plays. It was something you might expect out of a panicked freshman. It was something that would get most players benched.

But not Pace. The senior again took the ball on consecutive offensive possessions and, this time, scored on both. He finished the game with 14 points and five assists. Pace’s two quick baskets kept Providence from getting back into the game in the Orange’s 75-71 victory at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.‘Josh Pace is our most efficient player,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He made a couple of turnovers he doesn’t usually make, but he made up for it with the clock winding down.’

Pace scored the two baskets in typical fashion – with left-handed runners in the lane. His trademarked shot may be predictable, but it’s still nearly impossible to stop.

‘He’s hard for anybody to guard,’ Boeheim said. ‘If they put a little guy on him, (Pace) can beat him. They had a big guy on him and he can get by the big guys.’

With Darryl Watkins on the sideline with a cast on his right hand, foul trouble plagued the Orange big men against Providence.

Centers Craig Forth and Terrence Roberts rotated all game, but each fell into foul trouble early. They had three fouls each by halftime, with Forth earning his fourth at 13:02 of the second half and Roberts getting his fourth at 10:53.

‘That was the first time this season where we really got into foul trouble,’ Boeheim said. ‘We wish we had (Watkins) in there.’

Watkins sat on the bench in full uniform and said his surgery went well.

Forth finished the game with 11 points and seven rebounds, including two alley-oops from Gerry McNamara on consecutive possessions. Roberts had six points and two rebounds off the bench.

Still, Boeheim thinks Forth has not seen his potential in the middle.

‘If I can get him to jump, he can get some more rebounds,’ he said of Forth.

Syracuse forward Demetris Nichols returned to Rhode Island, where he played high school basketball at St. Andrew’s in Barrington.

Last year, he scored a career-high 17 points at Providence, but he has been out of the starting lineup since SU’s 86-56 win over Binghamton on Dec. 11. Sophomore Louie McCroskey has started in his place for the last 10 games.

On Saturday, Nichols entered the game at 13:02 of the first half but stayed in for only four minutes after missing a quick 3-point attempt.

‘We have to get him and Louie going,’ Boeheim said. ‘They are as good as anybody at attacking the rim.’

Nichols finished with two points and McCroskey had seven.

An overzealous Providence student clad in a lion suit berated Hakim Warrick during pregame warm-ups with a sign. On one side it read, ‘Warrick is a sodomite.’ On the other – ‘Wade Boggs once drank 64 beers on a cross-country flight.’ … Syracuse alum Ian Eagle teamed with Bill Raftery for the CBS broadcast.

Published on January 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm