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University of Louisville
Syracuse
Cardinals Downed By Syracuse, 79-66
February 19, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2006
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Gerry McNamara scored 30 points, Eric Devendorf had 14 and Syracuse beat Louisville 79-66 on Saturday night in a critical game for both teams.
Both Louisville's Rick Pitino and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim called it a must-win situation, and McNamara wasn't about to let it slip away before a screaming Carrier Dome crowd of 31,190, the largest of the season.
McNamara and Devendorf led Syracuse (18-8, 6-6 Big East) on a 20-4 run to start the second half, and the Cardinals (16-9, 4-8) couldn't recover.
Louisville has only two road wins this season and hasn't won two in a row since early January. The loss dropped it into a tie with Notre Dame and Providence, ahead of only three teams.
Taquan Dean, who struggled to find open looks all night, led the Cardinals with 21 points but was just 4-for-15 from the field. Dean made three 3-pointers to tie DeJuan Wheat's team record of 323 3-pointers set from 1993-1997.
Ailing center Dave Padgett, who suffered a concussion last Saturday in a win over South Florida and is facing offseason knee surgery, had 11 points before fouling out with 6:40 left. Juan Palacios had only three points, fouling out after playing just 11 minutes.
The Orange trailed by a point at halftime but stormed out after the break, forcing three quick turnovers. Devendorf scored nine points and McNamara converted a three-point play, all in the first 3:28, to put Syracuse ahead for good.
Devendorf's layup off a McNamara steal, one of four he had in the game, gave the Orange a 47-38 lead at 16:32, and two 3-pointers by McNamara boosted the lead to 55-40 with 14:27 to go.
Louisville led 36-35 halftime after trailing by as many as eight points midway through the sloppy game, which saw 59 fouls and five players foul out.
Terrence Roberts stole the ball and Devendorf scored on an easy layup off a nifty behind-the-back pass from Roberts to put Syracuse up 24-16 at 9:28. After Dean and McNamara each hit 3-pointers, the Cardinals took advantage of some awful foul shooting and a string of fouls by the Orange to go on a 14-3 run.
Syracuse shot 54.5 percent from the field in the opening period but lived up to its reputation as the worst free-throw shooting team in the Big East.
The Orange, converting just 66.1 percent on the season, was 7-for-20 (35 percent) in the first half and finished the game 19-for-46. The Cardinals, who entered the game converting just 67.7 percent of their free throws, went 13-for-15 from the line in each half.
Dean and McNamara each scored 14 points in the first half.
