In a four-day run that will long reverberate in Big East Conference lore, Syracuse guard Gerry McNamara got more ink in the New York tabloids than Paris Hilton and crammed a career's worth of clutch moments into a long weekend.
So it is only fitting that in the Big East tournament final on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, McNamara made sure that Syracuse (23-11) completed this most improbable run.
With the familiar chants of "Gerry, Gerry" echoing through the Garden all night, McNamara scored 14 points and dished out six assists as Syracuse stunningly defended its tournament title.
PHOTO: AP
The ninth-seeded Orange's 65-61 victory against sixth-seeded Pittsburgh makes Syracuse the lowest-seeded team to win the Big East tournament in its 27 years. If McNamara had decided to skip the final and catch a Broadway show, he would still have been the unanimous selection for the tournament most valuable player. But Saturday night, McNamara let his teammates get in on the act.
Demetris Nichols led the Orange with 15 points, Terrence Roberts added 13, and Darryl Watkins scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
But after Pittsburgh (24-7) methodically erased a 15-point Syracuse lead midway through the second half, McNamara and his teammates made sure the Panthers' momentum did not last. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called a 30-second timeout, McNamara immediately made a 3-pointer from the right side with 8 minutes 15 seconds remaining, and the Orange never trailed again.
PHOTO: AP
By squeezing out three games in three nights by a total of four points, Syracuse made the NCAA tournament and Big East history. The Orange became the first Big East team to win a game the day after winning an overtime game. The previous 16 teams had failed.
No. 7 Ohio State 52, indiana 51
Indiana drew first blood in its semifinal with Ohio State on Saturday afternoon in the Big Ten Conference tournament, and it was not just the one-point lead the Hoosiers held at halftime before the Buckeyes eventually defeated them, 52-51.
The blood trickled from the left eye of J.J. Sullinger of Ohio State. After he sank a short shot on his way to a game-high 19 points, his eyelid was cut by the elbow of Indiana's Earl Calloway. As the other players headed up the floor, some exchanged angry bumps, shoves and words.
No fouls were called. After all, this is the Big Ten, full of Buckeyes, Hawkeyes and black eyes, where rugged basketball games sometimes resemble football games in point totals and collisions.
After a timeout, tempers cooled, Sullinger's cut was closed and Ohio State eventually prevailed on a layup by Matt Sylvester off a pass from Terence Dials with 36 seconds left. "I've been giving him assists here for five years," Sylvester said of Dials. "It's about time he gave me one."
The Buckeyes (25-4) will meet Iowa (24-8) on Sunday for the conference tournament championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. The Hawkeyes finished tied for second in the regular season with Illinois, both teams one game behind the champion Buckeyes. In Saturday's other semifinal, Iowa defeated Michigan State, 53-48.
Indiana had two chances to win in the final seconds, but Marco Killingsworth first missed a left-handed hook over Dials. After the Hoosiers secured the rebound, Roderick Wilmont -- their leading scorer with 16 points -- bounced a short jumper off the rim from the right of the lane as the horn sounded.
Michigan State (22-11) had played late Friday night in a grueling 61-56 victory against Illinois after defeating Purdue the previous day.
That seemed to sap the energy level of the Spartans, who led by 25-22 at halftime but made only 23.1 percent of their field-goal attempts in the second half.
The Hawkeyes were idle on the first day of the tournament before defeating Minnesota 67-57 on Friday.
The Hawkeyes will probably be highly seeded in the NCAA tournament and the Buckeyes, a possible No. 1-seeded team, are hoping to play near their campus, perhaps in Dayton, Ohio.
Indiana's participation in the tournament seemed doubtful at midseason. But the Hoosiers (18-11) came into Saturday's game with a five-game winning streak after having lost the five before that.
Despite Michigan's late-season fade, the conference hopes to place at least six teams among the NCAA's field of 65.
No. 11 Boston College 85,
No. 10 UNC 82
The grand expansion of the Atlantic Coast Conference in recent years was designed to buff up the league's middling football profile. But the additions of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College were not supposed to upset the natural order in basketball.
Yet there was Boston College on Saturday, crashing the semifinals of the ACC tournament at Greensboro Coliseum in its first visit after bolting the Big East, and threatening to make it all the way to Sunday's final.
Turns out it was more than a threat. In front of a mostly powder-blue background of North Carolina fans, the third-seeded Eagles disposed of North Carolina 85-82, leaving it to Duke to uphold the ACC tradition and take home the title today. The top-seeded Blue Devils advanced with a 78-66 victory against 12th-seeded Wake Forest in the other semifinal.
The senior forward Craig Smith had 23 points and 15 rebounds for Boston College (26-6), which shot 61 percent from the field for the game. The Eagles used a 14-2 run in the second half to build a 70-56 lead with 8 minutes 36 seconds to go and held off a late Tar Heels run.
"I don't think we're crashing their party," Boston College coach Al Skinner said after the victory. "We're all part of the league. You might as well get used to this."
Gilbert Arenas scored 34 points and Caron Butler had 30 on Saturday as Washington Wizards broke out of a slump by beating the NBA-leading Detroit Pistons 110-92.
The Wizards ended a five-game losing streak by beating Detroit in two overtimes on Nov. 25, and they are still the only Eastern Conference team with a road win over the Pistons. On Saturday, the Wizards ended a 1-5 slide.
Washington and Utah are the only teams with two victories over Detroit this season.
Rasheed Wallace scored 18, and Richard Hamilton had 16 for the Pistons, who had won seven straight road against the Wizards. Tony Delk scored a season-high 16 points off the bench.
Clippers 106, Bucks 98
At Milwaukee, Chris Kaman and Elton Brand scored 22 points apiece to lead the Los Angeles Clippers over Milwaukee.
Sam Cassell, in his return to Milwaukee, added 20 points for the Clippers, who used a late 11-2 run to take control.
Michael Redd led the Bucks with 31 points, but he was 1-of-8 from the field in the fourth quarter.
Milwaukee lost for the eighth time in 11 games. The Bucks have lost five straight home games for the first time since losing seven in a row in February 2000.
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