STORRS, Conn. — Syracuse’s once-mighty lead turned to nil. Connecticut climbed out of a 17-point hole and with less than a minute to play, the game was tied.

Facing the more raucous end of Gampel Pavilion, C.J. Fair drove to the left block against Andre Drummond. As he prepared to force up a shot, he drew a second defender in Roscoe Smith. That left Fab Melo in position — by his lonesome — on the right side.

Fair’s contested layup spun off the rim, but the SU center slammed it home — giving the Orange a two-point advantage that would hold up for the final 31 seconds.

‘I saw C.J. come in for the layup (and) I knew it would be hard because UConn has a lot of big guys,’ Melo said. ‘But I just went to the glass and the ball came off the rim and I put it in.’

Syracuse’s defense held, as Fair blocked Smith’s tying attempt in the final seconds. The Orange came out red-hot from the field and led by 14 at halftime, but UConn was resilient and tied the game up twice in the final five minutes. Yet the Orange (29-1, 16-1 Big East) never trailed in the final 20 minutes, hanging on for a 71-69 victory over the Huskies (17-11, 7-9) in front of 10,167 at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday. No. 2 Syracuse clinched the outright regular-season Big East title and set a school record for most regular-season wins in a season with the victory.

The Orange nearly suffered an epic collapse, though, as it was stagnant offensively in the second half.

‘I thought we made some mistakes but as long as we were scoring we were fine,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We just stopped scoring for a few minutes.’

The Orange scored one field goal over a period of 8:55 in the second half, letting the Huskies back into the game. All season long, Syracuse has been the team forcing its opponents into long droughts offensively as it pulls away by making shots.

And in the first half Saturday, SU did just that. A 13-0 run put Syracuse ahead 25-10 and quieted a roaring crowd, some of whom had camped outside Gampel the night before in anticipation of ESPN College GameDay.

Kris Joseph slammed a fast-break dunk home to put SU up 11. About a minute later, Dion Waiters drove straight through the heart of the Huskies defense from the top of the key to throw in a two-handed slam.

‘I thought in the first half we played as well offensively as we played in a long time,’ Boeheim said. ‘We had a lot of different options, we were moving the ball, we were pushing it, partly because we did a better job on the boards.’

The Orange shot 51.4 percent in the first half and led 43-29 at the break. On SU’s first possession out of halftime, after a Brandon Triche miss, Scoop Jardine tipped the rebound out to Joseph, who hit a 3 to give the Orange its largest lead of the game.

But UConn stormed back, putting a charge back into the arena. Drummond — who finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds — did most of his damage in the second half. His tip-in over James Southerland brought the Huskies within 54-42. A Ryan Boatright 3 brought the deficit to single digits.

As the Huskies found their rhythm, Syracuse’s offense disappeared. The Orange made 1-of-11 shots and turned the ball over three times in the nearly nine-minute cold stretch.

‘We ran a lot better in the first half,’ Joseph said. ‘The second half we were trying to focus on our halfcourt sets, we should have just continued to run because they weren’t getting back with us.’

With 4:18 left, Shabazz Napier launched a lob toward the bucket from beyond halfcourt, and Drummond was right there. For the first time since UConn led 6-5 with 16:55 left in the first half, Syracuse was no longer in the driver’s seat, and Boeheim called a timeout with the game knotted at 63-63.

Out of the timeout, Joseph sliced into the lane and went up and over Drummond for a layup. On SU’s next possession, Melo grabbed a rebound off a Jardine miss and scored after Drummond was called for goaltending on his follow.

A tip-in by Drummond knotted the game again, this time at 69-69, with 47 seconds to play. Then Fair drove into Drummond, and Melo came through with the finish.

Needing one defensive stop to win, Syracuse let Connecticut attack the inside. Fair said they didn’t want to give the Huskies an opportunity to win the game with a 3.

When Smith drove into Melo and Fair, he didn’t have a chance to win the game, either.

‘We’ve found a way all year long to make something good happen,’ Boeheim said. ‘We’re not dominating by any stretch of the imagination.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on February 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr