WASHINGTON, D.C. — At 21-4, the Syracuse men’s basketball team has a problem: it can’t find a simple way to win.

The Orangemen shun easy victories, instead relishing their roles as Comeback Kids. They play by a heart-skipping script that leaves head coach Jim Boeheim pogoing out of his seat on every possession.

Without fail, they’ll trail by 10 points in the first half, cut the deficit to five by halftime, blow a couple chances to pull away in the second half and sneak out a win in the final minutes.

It’s as predictably tiresome as morning rush hour on the Autobahn.

No. 15 SU followed its comeback trend again Saturday, erasing a 12-point second-half deficit to beat Georgetown, 93-84, in overtime.

“I think we’re killing the fans back home,” SU center Craig Forth said. “I’ve heard so many people say, ‘Stop making ‘em barn burners.’ “

By now, SU has torched an Amish community worth of barns.

Saturday marked the 11th time the Orangemen overcame a second-half deficit, and they’re 7-3 in games in which they’ve trailed at halftime.

So, what gives?

“If this were another team, with all the young players we’ve got,” Syracuse forward Carmelo Anthony said, “I don’t think they would’ve won as many games as we’ve won.”

The difference?

“Heart,” Anthony said. “Toughness. Never quit.”

While Anthony left out the fact that it helps to have one of the country’s best players (himself), his four-word season summary sounds an awful lot like a trailer for a Jerry Bruckheimer film.

After all, this team is a dramedy in high tops. There’s controversy (see guard Billy Edelin’s 12-game, NCAA-imposed suspension). There’s suspense (see speculation about Anthony jumping to the NBA).

But since these are 19- and 20-year-olds, they manage to giggle through tense moments (see Anthony laughing when an opponent airballed a free throw earlier this season).

“It’s kind of like a movie,” forward Hakim Warrick said. “I hope we can keep going and get that good-movie ending.”

It won’t happen, though, if the Orangemen keep following this script.

“We don’t mean to get down by 10,” Anthony said. “We know that we can’t do that in the future, in the tournament.”

Indeed, March Madness is where Hollywood tales are crafted or crushed. And SU can only overcome so many 10-point deficits.

But at least for Saturday, Anthony found himself wrapped up in the comeback’s tension. He jawed with Georgetown’s Gerald Riley with 2:33 left in the first half, drawing a technical foul. When the Hoyas led by two with 28 seconds left, he bricked two free throws and anxiously bit his lower lip as he jogged back down the court.

He knew, of course, that the Orangemen had to make it hard on themselves. They had to prepare their postgame lines about how they’d rather blow teams out but will take a comeback any day.

“We feel like we can come back from anything,” Warrick said.

Don’t be fooled. These guys love their roles as resurrectors. Last season, SU lacked enough toughness to mount a comeback, but this year, the Orangemen have what Edelin called “that killer mentality.”

“Every time we get down,” he said, “we just say we’re going to find a way to win, just because we’ve done it before. We find a way to pull it out.”

They have to. It’s in the script.

Darryl Slater is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at dpslater@syr.edu.

Published on March 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm