SYRACUSE— Syracuse obviously didn't learn its lesson from an embarrassing home loss at the beginning of the season.
And thus, a once-promising season concluded with the Orange trying to explain yet another curious home loss in which it dominated for much of the game.
Back on Nov. 28, Massachusetts overcame a double-digit second-half deficit and scored 59 points in the final 20 minutes to pull off a 107-100 upset win in the Carrier Dome.
Turn the clock ahead four months and almost the same scenario unfolded, this time with a berth in the NIT semifinals on the line. The visiting Minutemen outscored a faltering SU by 57-34 to earn a stunning 81-77 victory Tuesday night before a crowd of 20,162.
The sad part for the top-seeded Orange (21-14) was that it threatened to blow UMass out of the Dome, leading 43-24 at halftime and by 22 points with 14 1/2 minutes remaining. But a combination of too many missed layups, hot outside shooting by the Minutemen and fatigue by the thin SU roster helped No. 2 seed UMass find new life, again.
"I didn't think that kind of collapse would happen to us again," said SU freshman guard Jonny Flynn, referring to the Pitt game on March 1 when the Orange squandered an 11-point lead with three minutes to go. "You're not really thinking about it when it's happening. But at the end of the game, you look back and think of all the things you could have done to win this game."
The Orange was left to wonder what might have been if SU's big men, Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson, didn't miss at least 10 easy baskets between them in the final 20 minutes.
And when the Orange missed, UMass usually converted on the other end.
"They are going to score because they are a good offensive team," said SU coach Jim Boeheim. "But we have to keep scoring, too. All those missed easy shots gave them new life, and they just built on that momentum. We handled their pressure OK, but we didn't make them pay enough when they gambled."
UMass, which plays Florida in Tuesday's semifinals at Madison Square Garden, trimmed the lead to under double digits with just over six minutes to go as Etienne Brower (19 points) hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game.
The Orange led 74-66 when Ricky Harris (23 points) of UMass nailed a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:41 to play.
What became SU's last hoop of the game, a layup by Scoop Jardine on an inbounds play, put the Orange up 76-69 at the 3:22 mark. But UMass scored 12 of the final 13 points as SU managed a lone Donte Greene free throw down the stretch.
"You've got to finish what you start," said Greene, who scored 18 points in what could have been his last game in a SU uniform. He said afterward he wasn't sure if he'd be back next year or turn pro. "They made a lot of shots the second half, but there's no excuse for us missing so many easy baskets that we usually make."
SU still had a couple of chances to tie at the end, but consecutive drives by Greene and Flynn resulted in turnovers.
"We wanted Donte and Jonny to go to the hoop," Boeheim said. "They just got poor angles."
UMass coach Travis Ford said his intent was to "try to get their big men tired. We just had no answer for Onuaku inside, so our only hope was that he was fatigued and missed some easy shots."
UMass struggled mightily in the first half, shooting just 10-of-43 from the field and 2-for-15 on 3-pointers. In the second half, those same shots were falling as the Minutemen converted 20 of 36 shots, including 9-for-16 on 3s.
Said Ford: "I told the kids at halftime we were lucky we weren't down 30 because that was our poorest half of the season. But I also told them to keep their heads up and just try to stay with our system. Once we got it under double digits, we were pretty confident."
