During a timeout with a few minutes left in Monday night’s game, Syracuse sophomore Terrence Roberts yelled to Hakim Warrick to take the ball down low and get the Orange a basket.

Syracuse moved the ball into the post for Warrick, but for the second straight possession, Connecticut swatted the entry pass away.

When the Orange desperately needed something from Warrick, junior Gerry McNamara, or just about anybody, it came up short.

No. 8 Syracuse scored just five points in the final eight minutes, including just one point in the final 3:15, losing to No. 19 Connecticut, 74-66, before 27,651 in the Carrier Dome. The loss was the first in 15 games at the Dome for the Orange this season.

Forward Charlie Villanueva led the Huskies (16-5, 7-3 Big East) with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

‘We made two turnovers going into the post,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said, ‘and that was the ball game.’

Warrick scored just three points in the second half after leading Syracuse (21-3, 8-2) with 13 in the first half. He left the game with his fourth foul with 11:44 remaining in the second half and Syracuse continued to play well, building a 61-56 lead with 8:08 remaining.

‘When Hak went out, everybody started to get into a little bit of a rhythm,’ junior guard Billy Edelin said. ‘When he came back in, coach wanted to get him the ball like we should have.’

But Warrick’s return and the Orange’s reliance on getting the ball to its senior star ultimately doomed Syracuse more than the fourth foul had.

With less than three minutes to go and the Orange trailing by two, Syracuse made the attempt to go inside to Warrick.

‘We tried a little too hard to get him the ball,’ Boeheim said. ‘He’s the guy we want to go to.’

Villanueva deflected the first entry pass and on the next possession, Syracuse tried Warrick again. It was a different defender in Connecticut sophomore Josh Boone, but it resulted in another deflection.

‘(Warrick’s) a big-time player,’ Villanueva said. ‘Syracuse was going to look for him and we sagged down on him.’

Boone ended up putting back an offensive rebound on the next Huskie possession, stretching the Connecticut lead to 69-65 with 1:18 to play.

‘I thought he had (the entry passes) sealed,’ Edelin said. ‘Maybe we didn’t get the calls but you can’t blame it on that. If it’s not there, don’t force it.’

McNamara finished the game with just nine points on 1-of-9 shooting from 3-point range and couldn’t bail out Syracuse. He missed three 3s in the final minute and Connecticut hit 5-of-6 free throws to ice the win.

‘I don’t feel like they did anything to beat us,’ McNamara said. ‘We did it to ourselves.’

Not only did Syracuse’s stars fail to accumulate points down the stretch, but they failed to convert on numerous opportunities when the Orange led.

On several possessions, Syracuse’s defensive press forced turnovers. But on the fast break, Syracuse couldn’t cash in on odd-man rushes.

Roberts missed a lay-up after he intercepted an UConn pass. Warrick missed a normally-routine dunk off an offensive rebound on another possession. Even McNamara couldn’t help, missing a lay-up off a steal to give away another easy basket.

‘There was a stretch when we had the lead at three or four and missed two lay-ups, and two foul shots that could have gotten us into good position,’ Boeheim said. ‘There were some lost opportunities there that we had to finish and just didn’t.’

Syracuse proved it could come back late in wins against Rutgers and Notre Dame, but its inability to hold onto a lead, rather than overcome one, doomed it the most on Monday night.

‘We took a lead,’ McNamara said, ‘and we should have kept it.

‘I feel like pretty much screaming and beating people up.’

Published on February 7, 2005 at 12:00 pm