Syracuse senior Gerry McNamara was on a tear in the No. 24 Orange’s last two games, scoring 54 combined points against Notre Dame and Cincinnati. But when Big East rival Connecticut visited the Carrier Dome last night, the Big East player of the week’s hot streak suddenly went cold.

The guard scored 14 points against the Huskies, continuing a career-long trend of futility against UConn. It was McNamara’s sixth career loss to the Huskies in eight tries. He failed to make a 3-point field goal until 8:47 remained in the game and only converted five shots from the field.

McNamara’s cold shooting was indicative of an overall poor shooting night for Syracuse. The Orange shot 32 percent from the floor while McNamara shot slightly worse at just above 31 percent.

‘There’s a guy everywhere you go,’ McNamara said. ‘I didn’t get a lot of good looks. They play as well team defense as any team we play against. It was just difficult for me to get a shot off. I tried to get everyone involved.’

Earlier in the season, McNamara often offset his lack of scoring by dishing the ball to open teammates. That wasn’t the case against the No. 4 Huskies, who focused on denying McNamara any look or passing lane.

McNamara had the Orange’s only first half assist and finished with four of SU’s 11 assists.

The guard was unusually sloppy with the ball as a result of UConn’s pressure. While his assist-to-turnover ratio has been good all season, the Huskies found a way to force the senior to make errors.

He turned the ball over a team-high five times. SU had 20 turnovers in the game.

‘We just didn’t shoot the ball well and we didn’t take care of the ball well offensively and that was the ball game,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

The tough play from Connecticut didn’t stop McNamara from hustling, though. With 15:01 remaining in the game, McNamara followed guard Louie McCroskey on a fast break after McCroskey stole the ball. McCroskey missed the layup and the trailing McNamara easily rebounded the miss and laid the ball into the hoop.

Such easy looks didn’t come often, though, and his inability to get to the foul line further hurt McNamara. He only attempted two free throws, making both. McNamara is shooting more than 88 percent from the foul line this season.

Boeheim said the weight of the loss was on the inexperienced juniors, not the veteran McNamara.

‘Gerry’s going to play the way he’s going to play … (He’s) obviously done a tremendous job for us,’ Boeheim said.

After the game, McNamara sat alone in front of his locker leaned over with his head in his arms. Numerous people tried to comfort him, but the senior knew UConn once again got the best of him.

‘We forced a bit early on,’ McNamara said. ‘They come out and got a big lead early, we got it to four and fell apart again. I think we were a little impatient, a little immature in this game.

‘To be on Big Monday in front of all these fans and to come out flat, it’s not the best feeling in the world.’

Published on January 16, 2006 at 12:00 pm