It all started when a Saint Rose player took Josh Wright out. The Syracuse guard was attempting a lay-up with 30 seconds left in the first half of the Orange’s exhibition game against Saint Rose Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome.

It ended with Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim calling it a night one half earlier than usual.

SU defeated Saint Rose, 86-73, in front of 6,635 behind Gerry McNamara’s game-high 29 points. But Boeheim’s ejection with 28.9 seconds left in the first half of the first exhibition game of the season overshadowed the final score or any individual performance.

Play resumed after Wright missed the lay-up due to contact with the Saint Rose player, and Boeheim made his way onto the court to notify one official of his displeasure at the no-call. As Saint Rose brought the ball down on offense, the official called a technical foul on Boeheim.

Golden Knight Brad Shove missed the first technical free throw and Boeheim continued to plead his case. The disagreement appeared to subside and Boeheim began to walk away. As Shove made the second shot, the referee blew his whistle and ejected Boeheim from the game. Boeheim said he just said, ‘OK,’ to the referee and was returning to his spot on the sideline.

‘I didn’t like the non-calls,’ Boeheim said. ‘It looked to me like they didn’t want to call the game. I’ve never been thrown out of the game. I’ve never been thrown out of the game for saying OK.’

The referee who ejected Boeheim walked away from the Orange bench and toward the opposite side of the court, waving his hands in a dismissing manner at Boeheim. Boeheim remained on the court for several more minutes, chewing out another member of the officiating crew as loud boos filled the Carrier Dome.

Boeheim said it was the first ejection of his career, though the Hall of Fame coach received two technical fouls on March 1, 1980, against Georgetown in the Big East Championship.

Syracuse freshman Eric Devendorf, sitting on the floor along the baseline, stood up and threw a towel on the court. Other Syracuse players stood along the three-point line near the SU bench, looking on in disbelief. Boeheim walked off the court to a standing ovation.

‘It didn’t affect me,’ Syracuse guard Louie McCroskey said. ‘It kind of passed me by. I didn’t even know if he was going to be out because it was an exhibition.’

Syracuse associate head coach Bernie Fine coached the remainder of the game for the Orange.

McNamara said Boeheim’s dismissal gave the Orange a reason to play with more intensity. McNamara scored 20 second-half points, 10 off free throws. McNamara went 14-for-14 from the line.

‘That doesn’t involve me,’ McNamara said. ‘He’s fighting for us. He wasn’t happy with us. I think it was more that he was so angry with us and he took it out on the referees. If your coach is more intense than you are, something’s wrong. He’s getting fired up and we’re on the court playing like dogs. You got to match what he’s giving on the sideline.’

Boeheim said the most disappointing thing about his ejection was he couldn’t work on areas he planned to test in the second half. Instead, he watched the final 20 minutes on a locker room television. He complained how Syracuse’s turnovers were more apparent watching the game on television.

Midway through the second half, it seemed as if the Orange was letting up without its head coach. Using an 8-2 run, the Golden Knights pulled the score to 62-52 with 11 minutes remaining after trailing by as much as 18.

The Orange responded by switching to a press defense with less than nine minutes left and successfully confused Saint Rose. Syracuse scored eight unanswered points during the next minute and then built on that momentum to gain a 22-point lead, its largest of the game, with 6:33 left.

Both the Orange and Golden Knights scored 45 points in the second half.

After spending the second half in the locker room while his team played even with Saint Rose, Boeheim decided his first ejection wasn’t like he’d imagined it.

‘It’s not something I want to do very often,’ Boeheim said. ‘I thought if I ever got thrown out it’d be for a reason – a good reason.’

Published on November 1, 2005 at 12:00 pm