PISCATAWAY, N.J. – For a few exciting moments, it felt like an entire arena – an entire game, really – stopped just to marvel at one incredible play.

In reality, the action paused because Rutgers head coach Fred Hill had been hit with a technical foul, and the officials had to confer with the scoring table. But for all practical purposes, the break gave everyone here at the Louis Brown Athletic Center a chance to revel in the shock and euphoria of Syracuse guard Jonny Flynn leaping over Rutgers’ Mike Rosario and throwing down a seemingly impossible one-handed slam.

While Hill was arguing the dunk should have been a charge, Flynn took the opportunity to stand at mid-court and bask in the adrenaline, pumping his fists to the rafters. As Eric Devendorf stepped up take the technical free-throws, Flynn let the chant of a pro-Syracuse crowd of 8,079 rain down from the upper deck:

‘Jo-nny, Jo-nny.’

At that point, the Orange led by six. It would never be that close again.

Flynn’s magical dunk sparked an explosive second half for No. 11 Syracuse (16-1, 4-0) in its 82-66 win over Rutgers Saturday night. The play came early in a stretch of 12-consecutive made field goals by the Orange, breaking open a game SU led by a single point at halftime. From there, Syracuse shot 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) from the field and looked completely unstoppable on the offensive end.

And even though the Orange shot 61 percent in a contest that put SU in first place in the Big East, all anyone wanted to talk about after the game was the show-stopping dunk. Paul Harris, who scored a game-high 26 points on 11-of-13 shooting, resorted to answering a question by humming the SportsCenter theme song. The rest of the locker room just seemed stunned.

‘No. 1 on the top 10. That’s all I can say. That’s No. 1 on the top 10,’ forward Kris Joseph said. ‘That was definitely the first time I’ve ever seen something like that.’

‘It was a game-changer,’ guard Andy Rautins said. ‘That kind of deflated their whole morale. It electrified the crowd, and it was definitely a game-changer.’

Yet in all the excitement and fanfare, it is easy to forget that for a half, Saturday night’s game was anything but easy for Syracuse.

Rutgers (9-8, 0-4) dominated the glass early on and at one point had a seven-point lead. At times, the Orange looked helpless down low. In the first half, the Scarlet Knights out-rebounded the Syracuse 21-10, and turned nine offensive boards into 10 second-chance points.

But the Orange picked up its defensive intensity and effort. Playing mostly a 2-3 zone, Syracuse managed to hold RU to five offensive rebounds the rest of the way. In the second half, Syracuse won the rebounding battle, 18-13, and completely shifted the momentum of the game.

‘The difference in the second half, rebounding,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘The defense was better, and it was a good win.’

When the rebounding improved, the offense took off. Syracuse started its field goal streak at the 15:33 mark of the half with a layup by Arinze Onuaku that gave SU a 45-41 lead. When the run ended 12 buckets and eight minutes later, the Orange led by 12, and the difference would never dip under 10 again.

Four Syracuse players – Flynn, Harris, Onuaku and guard Eric Devendorf – finished with at least 15 points. And, of course, there was that dunk thrown in there.

‘That was a game-changing play,’ Flynn said. ‘My team fed off of it, and we put out a good win.’

In his post-game press conference, Boeheim tried to downplay Flynn’s slam. To him, it was just two points, no different than any other two points.

But despite what he says, it was the kind of play that was worth so much more than a single field goal. It was the boost Syracuse needed in what began as a lackadaisical outing and the moment the team will remember well past Saturday night.

Just ask Harris. A reporter asked him if the dunk was really just two points. Harris couldn’t contain his laughter.

‘I have no comment on that,’ Harris said. ‘That’s just coach Boeheim.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on January 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm