TAMPA, Fla. – Kristof Ongenaet’s face said it all. He didn’t even need to wait for the entire question. The moment a reporter mentioned the word, ‘finishing,’ Ongenaet scrunched his face into a disappointed grimace, put his hands to his forehead and stared despondently to the back wall of the locker room.

No way should Friday night’s game have been so close. The 59-54 final tally in favor of No. 13 Syracuse (14-1, 2-0 Big East) doesn’t tell the entire story. It doesn’t show that the Orange let South Florida (5-8, 0-1) cut a 16-point halftime lead to three with 90 seconds left. Nor does it show how Syracuse’s offensive deficiencies in the second half almost led to a total meltdown here at the Sun Dome.

‘The game would have been over after the first half if me, and maybe some other guys – especially me – finishes around the basket,’ Ongenaet said.

That was just one aspect of the Orange’s 20-minute offensive nightmare, immediately after playing what SU head coach Jim Boeheim called the best half of the season.

After shooting 50 percent in the first half and appearing to have the game easily in hand, Syracuse shot just 9-of-25 (36 percent) the rest of the way. Couple that with another dismal night from the free-throw line (7-of-18, 38.9 percent), and that breezy conference blowout was suddenly a nailbiter. After the game, Boeheim criticized his team for missing opportunities to score easy baskets throughout the night.

‘We were just trying to hang on at the end, and we were very fortunate to be able to hang on at the end of the game,’ Boeheim said. ‘The first half just got away from us. We should have taken control of the game, and we didn’t.’

It didn’t help that Syracuse played Friday essentially without two of its two best players. Forward Paul Harris, who split open his ring finger Tuesday against Seton Hall, sat out the entire game. Shooting guard Eric Devendorf suffered a hip pointer in the opening seconds of the game and said he was in ‘excruciating pain’ the entire night. He played 24 minutes and scored eight points.

The status of both players for Wednesday’s contest against DePaul is unknown, but Boeheim was more optimistic about Harris’ prognosis.

For much of the game, it didn’t seem like the two injuries would matter. The Orange was dominant in the first half, pounding the ball inside against the undersized Bulls. At halftime, center Arinze Onuaku led all scorers with 11 points, USF had no real answer on defense and Syracuse held what appeared to be an insurmountable lead.

That’s when the wheels nearly fell off entirely. South Florida guard Dominique Jones, who managed just two points in the first half, got hot. He scored 15 points, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, in the second half and found space in the Orange’s 2-3 zone. At least two of the 3’s were so wide open, Jones had time to take an extra second or two to set up before hoisting the ball up. Outside of Jones’ four 3’s, USF was 0-of-8 from deep.

‘I was getting a little bit worried at the beginning of the second half,’ said SU guard Andy Rautins, who had a team-high 14 points while playing all 40 minutes. ‘We started to get sloppy, making a few turnovers. We can’t let down our guard like that. We kind of got passive out there.’

All the while, the misses for Syracuse continued to pile up, especially from the free-throw line. Onuaku was especially bad Friday, shooting 1-for-9 from the stripe, despite finishing the game with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

It led to the Bulls having a chance to tie the game with 36 seconds left, but Jones missed a 3. With little time left, USF fouled Devendorf, who came in for his shooting despite the injury. And when he coolly stepped up and knocked down two free throws to ice the game after a hellish second half, the decidedly pro-Syracuse crowd of 8,530 let out a collective sigh of relief.

‘We really are struggling from the foul line right now, and it’s the missed layups,’ Boeheim said. ‘To play so well in the first half, we should have had dominant control of the game.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on January 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm