SOUTH BEND, Ind. — One by one, Billy Edelin gathered his Syracuse men’s basketball teammates under the basket and grabbed fistfuls of their jerseys. His eyes wide, Edelin screamed something the Orangemen had already realized in the waning minutes of last night’s game at Notre Dame.

‘They’re gonna make a run,’ Edelin told his teammates. ‘We’ve just got to pull together, make some stops and win this game.’

The No. 12 Orangemen did. By holding off a late Notre Dame charge and never allowing the No. 16 Irish to take a lead, SU pulled out a 92-88 victory before 11,450 at the Joyce Center. With the win, the Orangemen locked up a first-round bye in the Big East tournament.

Even without his speech — which came with 3:04 left, seconds before a free throw from Notre Dame forward Torin Francis cut SU’s lead to 84-83 — Edelin proved a valuable offensive asset. He scored a career-high 26 points on 13-of-20 shooting. Edelin’s previous high was 18 in a win at West Virginia.

‘I just wanted to try to get everybody focused in,’ Edelin said of his late-game speech. ‘I just try to pick my spots, and when (SU head coach Jim Boeheim) gives me the OK to go, I make things happen, don’t rush and try to finish.

‘I don’t take bad shots. I’ve never played like that. I think it’s stupid.’

Indeed, Edelin took care of the ball, turning it over just three times in 32 minutes. And he preserved SU’s chance to win the game.

Despite being down 11 at halftime, Notre Dame moved within four three minutes into the second half. The Irish whittled away the SU lead, and a 3-pointer from guard Matt Carroll tied the game at 86 with about two minutes left.

A minute later, Notre Dame guard Torrian Jones hit two free throws to tie the game at 88. But on SU’s next possession, Edelin made perhaps his most valuable contribution.

With about 50 seconds left, Edelin backed into the lane, searching for a shot. He lost the ball but remained calm and regained possession.

Then, with 39.6 seconds left, SU forward Carmelo Anthony fought his way through traffic and layed in Hakim Warrick’s missed turnaround jumper to give SU a 90-88 lead.

Edelin attributed his success to the fact that the Orangemen (22-4, 12-3 Big East) arrived in South Bend on Monday, and he got a chance to sleep all yesterday.

Maybe it’s something else, too. After the game, Edelin sported a gray hooded sweatshirt with the words ‘We R One’ on it. Edelin also wore the shirt after SU’s last two games, in which he scored 10 and 14 points. When it was suggested that the threads might be lucky, he said, ‘I guess it might be. I never noticed it.’

‘Games like this, we needed him out there,’ Warrick said. ‘He’s patient. He knows what he can do. Once he got a couple easy baskets, that really gets him going.’

Boeheim praised Edelin’s efforts on Notre Dame point guard Chris Thomas, who had 16 points but shot 7 of 20.

‘Billy was really the difference,’ Boeheim said. ‘He played pretty good defense. Thomas had to take a lot of shots to get his points. Billy’s gone through a lot. He’s had to get his game going under tough conditions.’

Though Edelin’s midseason return from a 12-game, NCAA-imposed suspension slowed his contributions earlier this year, his confidence appears to be brimming. He’s looking for his shots more — that runner down the lane is still his favorite — and seems less tentative on defense.

And with Edelin’s aggression last night, the Orangemen roared out of the gates instead of falling behind early, which they’ve done in previous games.

In the first half, SU opened up an 11-2 lead after guard Gerry McNamara hit Syracuse’s first two shots, both 3-pointers. McNamara scored 13 of SU’s first 21 points and, in the first eight minutes, was 5 of 6, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range.

McNamara finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range.

Carroll led all scorers with 28 points.

The Orangemen grabbed their biggest lead of the game, 39-18, in the first half. But late in the half, Notre Dame (21-8, 9-6) went on a 13-4 run in which it hit three consecutive 3-pointers.

Syracuse went to man-to-man defense for the last two minutes of the first half and started the second that way before switching back to a 2-3 zone.

‘I couldn’t find the right defense to stop them,’ Boeheim said. ‘There may not have been one. We just tried to keep scoring, because neither team really could stop the other team.’

Published on March 4, 2003 at 12:00 pm