NEW YORK – Louie McCroskey entered Sunday afternoon’s contest against St. John’s with 5:46 remaining in the first half. It marked the first time he played since the Orange’s 86-84 overtime win over Rutgers on Feb. 1.

McCroskey did not travel with the team to Connecticut on Wednesday and missed a week of practice before rejoining the team on Friday.

‘He’s back at practice and working hard,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

The junior guard recorded 10 minutes, scoring one point. His playing time came in the final five minutes of each half.

At times he forced shots, trying to impress in his first game back and in front of a hometown crowd. The junior is from Bronx.

McCroskey was hardly his animated self after the game, choosing instead to remain quiet about his differences with Boeheim in an attempt to put it behind him.

‘The situation is in the past,’ McCroskey said. ‘I’m thankful Coach is the way he is. I’m just ready to move on at this point.’

Red Zone

The Syracuse 2-3 zone remained active against St. John’s, limiting the number of open looks the Red Storm had.

The Orange prevented Sunday’s game from turning into a shootout, like many of its losses this year. Boeheim referenced the performances of Rutgers’ Quincy Douby and Seton Hall’s Donald Copeland and Jamar Nutter as specifically what SU needed to prevent.

St. John’s couldn’t muster a shooter quite like Douby or Nutter, going 2-of-13 as a team from behind the 3-point line, a 15.4 shooting percentage.

With the Red Storm unable to shoot from outside, SU forced St. John’s to go inside where the zone was more formidable.

‘We’ve seen so many shooting exhibitions this year,’ Boeheim said. ‘We were more active than we have been this year. Part of that is we got something going on offense. Our offense has been awful.’

Frustration punch

A large cluster of Syracuse and St. John’s players gathered near the Syracuse bench with 29 seconds remaining, trying to restrain Red Storm forward Phil Missere. Two SJU players had to hold Missere back and push him away from the SU bench while officials tried to sort out the incident.

After a three-minute delay, officials called Orange forward Matt Gorman for an intentional foul and Missere for a technical. Television replays showed Gorman elbowing Missere in the back of his head.

Boeheim said he didn’t see what happened, but was told Missere punched Gorman.

‘It’s unfortunate,’ Boeheim said.

This and that

Thanks to the massive snowstorm that struck many East Coast cities, including New York, St. John’s is allowing any fans who had tickets to Sunday’s game to exchange them for another home game this season. Any used or unused tickets will be accepted. … St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts wore a long-sleeved St. John’s shirt and sneakers on the sideline. Boeheim also wore sneakers in honor of the Coaches vs. Cancer Foundation. … The multitude of Syracuse fans in attendance made its presence felt in more ways than one. When St. John’s T-shirts were launched into the crowd, three Syracuse fans who caught the shirts threw them back onto the cou

Published on February 12, 2006 at 12:00 pm