PHOENIX REGION: Syracuse 80 – BYU 75
DENVER – Gerry McNamara had just poured in 28 points against BYU in the first half and yet as he walked off the court toward the halftime locker room yesterday, the BYU cheering section was chanting, “Air ball, air ball,” in response to his last shot of the half, which was partially blocked and missed everything.
McNamara, Syracuse’s prolific-shooting 6-1 sophomore guard out of Scranton, Pa., perhaps knowing he was far from finished finishing BYU, flashed a smirk before disappearing into the tunnel.
“It amazes me that I could put up 28 points in the first half and they’re chanting, ‘Air ball,’ ” McNamara would say incredulously later. “I just gave them a quick smile and walked to the locker room.”
What McNamara might not have noticed – though Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim did – was many of those same BYU fans paying homage to McNamara by bowing to him as he left the court.
What those BYU supporters didn’t realize was that McNamara was hardly finished.
He scored another 15 in the second half, including a back-breaking 3-pointer to slightly separate the Orangemen with 2:11 remaining, and finished with a career-high 43 points in Syracuse’s 80-75 win over BYU at the Pepsi Center.
The Orangemen (22-7) will play Maryland (20-11) in tomorrow’s second-round game in a showdown between the last two national champions.
Syracuse plays on to defend its national title because of McNamara, who was positively brilliant, start to finish.
“He turned the whole game around and carried the team on his back,” Syracuse’s Hakim Warrick, who scored 20 points (16 in the second half), said.
“If he didn’t shoot that well,” BYU’s Mark Bigelow said, “we probably would have been up by 20 in the first half.”
Indeed, with Warrick, Syracuse’s best player, in early foul trouble, BYU had built its lead to as many as 11 points in the first half before McNamara’s barrage of treys made it 42-42 at the intermission.
“It is my best game ever . . . definitely in college,” McNamara, who shot 11-of-17 from the field, including 9-of-13 from three-point range, said. “Right from the start I felt good and I just kept on shooting. When you have it you have to roll with it.”
Boeheim was quick to point out that, while recruiting McNamara, he saw him score 43 points in the first half in a state semifinal high school game (he finished with 56 that game).
Ironically, there was a cover story in one of the local papers yesterday about how “prolific scorers are a vanishing breed” in college basketball, looking back at the days when “Pistol” Pete Maravich averaged 44.5 points per game in the 1969-70 season.
“I had the game of my life and ‘Pistol’ Pete averaged more than that,” McNamara, who entered the game averaging 16.2 points per game, said.
Regardless, the entire building was buzzing about McNamara’s performance. Syracuse supporters will be talking about it for years.
“That was as good a performance as I’ve ever seen in college basketball,” Boeheim said. “Gerry was in another world. I don’t think you’ll see the likes of a game like that for a long time. He’s a gamer. He knew, with Hakim in foul trouble, it was him or we’re going home in the morning.”