JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Syracuse men’s basketball team displayed the lineup of the future for most of Thursday’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Texas A&M, thanks to an injury severely limiting senior Gerry McNamara’s playing time.Leading the way for the Orange was an unlikely face – sophomore Josh Wright.Wright, a true point guard, played only 12.3 minutes per game this season. But with McNamara unable to push off due to a nagging groin injury he re-injured in practice, SU head coach Jim Boeheim called on Wright to fill the void.Wright responded, scoring 12 points in 30 minutes. He was the second-leading scorer on the team.In the past, Boeheim hesitated to play Wright due to the guard’s tendency to become excited and make poor decisions. Boeheim had little choice this time, and Wright made a case for more playing time next season.He shot 2-of-3 from behind the 3-point line and limited his mistakes. Wright turned the ball over twice and botched a fast-break lay-up in the first half.Despite scoring the most points since he had 14 against Rutgers on Feb. 1, Wright didn’t take much solace in his individual performance. He instead chose to dwell in the loss.’I could’ve done so much more,’ Wright said. ‘I could’ve made an extra pass or made an extra shot.’

Stars from the stripeMuch has been made of Syracuse’s deficiencies from the free-throw line this season, but on Thursday, it was Texas A&M’s astounding success which drew the attention.The Orange shot 66.7 percent from the foul line, a bit over its 64 percent season average. The Aggies, on the other hand, made 19 of its 22 free throws – an 86.4 percent clip.Texas A&Ms last nine points were on foul shots. It took 10 free throws in the last 90 seconds.’We are just playing together and we expect to put ourselves in situations to win at the end of the game,’ Texas A&M guard Acie Law IV said. ‘We have confidence that we can beat anybody down the stretch.’Everybody is expected to make their free throws and we work on that in practice. It’s the NCAA Tournament. It’s now or never, and we don’t want to leave. So when we get an opportunity, we try to knock it down.’