The Syracuse men’s basketball team had the momentum, the crowd and a four-point lead. Then over the last five minutes the offense stalled, the defense loosened and Syracuse’s ball handlers showed their youth.

Bucknell took advantage of No. 17 Syracuse’s late unraveling to shock the Orange, 74-69, at the Carrier Dome in front of 20,490 on Tuesday night. The opportunistic Bison finished the game on an 18-7 run and sent SU to its second straight loss.

‘We have a long, long way to go,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘I think it’s about our team and it’s not about the teams we’re playing. We’re not playing well now.’

The Bison (2-0) sealed the game when the Orange (3-2) turned the ball over on consecutive possessions. With 1:13 remaining, SU freshman Eric Devendorf shook his defender and drove the lane. When a Bucknell defender rotated over to cut the lane off, Devendorf passed crosscourt. The pass was intercepted and Devendorf was forced to foul Bucknell guard Kevin Bettencourt, who led all scorers with 20 points.

Boeheim immediately took Devendorf out, opting for the only slightly more experienced Josh Wright.

Wright proceeded to throw the ball away on SU’s next possession, much to the chagrin of Boeheim, who then put Devendorf back in the game.

‘(Wright) thought he could make something happen,’ Boeheim said. ‘He made a couple great penetration plays. He’s a sophomore now. He can’t make bad plays. He’s got to be a smart player.’

The Orange’s inability to make plays down the stretch was only part of the story. As in SU’s loss to Florida on Friday, Orange big men Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins were overshadowed, grabbing only one rebound combined in the second half. Watkins only had three rebounds, none in the second half.

Roberts refused comment after the game, opting instead to stare sullenly at his PDA while slumped in a chair in the Syracuse locker room. He saw no consolation in his 12 points.

Forward Demetris Nichols led Syracuse in scoring for the second straight game with 19 points. Guard Gerry McNamara had another poor night from the 3-point line — 4-of-13 — and finished with 18 points.

But it wasn’t the Bison frontcourt against Roberts and Watkins that hurt Syracuse. Instead of dumping the ball into the paint like Florida did on Friday in New York, Bucknell opted to slash and penetrate the Syracuse zone. The tactic was surprisingly effective despite the zone’s origins as a defense meant to stop penetration.

Bucknell outscored Syracuse 34-18 in the paint.

‘We defensively just did not stop people and that’s my biggest concern right now,’ Boeheim said. ‘We went the second half with our (frontcourt) getting one rebound. It’s time for these guys to step up. They’ve got to rebound the basketball. We can’t play 20 minutes with Terrence and Mookie (Watkins) and get one rebound. We’re not going to beat anybody.’

Syracuse looked to have the game well under control midway through the second half. SU led by as many as seven points before Bucknell regrouped.

The Orange and the Bison went back and forth for the majority of the latter part of the second half. There were 10 lead changes in the game.

Still, with the home-court advantage, Syracuse had momentum on its side until Devendorf’s turnover. After that, the Orange were forced to intentionally foul the rest of the game. Bettencourt, an 88.8 percent foul shooter last year, scored seven of his points on foul shots in the last 1:22.

‘I think (the late turnovers were) the key situation in the game and it turned it around,’ McNamara said. ‘We knew they were a good team; we didn’t perform and look what happened.’

Published on November 22, 2005 at 12:00 pm