ALBANY – Ten minutes into the Syracuse men’s basketball team’s game last night against Auburn, Oklahoma assistant coaches Bennie Seltzer and Jim Shaw were already discussing defensive matchups for a potential Orangemen-Sooners matchup in Sunday’s Elite Eight.

As Seltzer munched on a sub and downed Mountain Dew, he scribbled notes on a yellow legal pad, diagramming a hole in the middle of SU’s zone and noting SU center Jeremy McNeil as a ‘BT (big time) shot-blocker.’ By halftime, he had three times more notes on SU than on Auburn.

After all, the Orangemen jumped on the Tigers early, so much so that Seltzer remarked to Shaw about Auburn playing with ‘no energy.’

Despite a late Auburn charge, the No. 3-seeded Orangemen continued their storybook season, outlasting the No. 10 Tigers, 79-78, in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 in front of 15,093 at the Pepsi Arena.

Syracuse advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1996, when it eventually lost to Kentucky, 76-67, in the national championship game. The Orangemen will play No. 1 Oklahoma tomorrow at 2:40 p.m. The Sooners beat No. 12 Butler, 65-54, earlier last night.

Carmelo Anthony led SU (27-5) with 18 points and eight rebounds. Three other Orangemen – Hakim Warrick, Josh Pace and Kueth Duany – scored in double figures. Warrick had 15, Pace had a career-high 14 and Duany scored 12.

Forward Marquis Daniels shot 12 of 21 for 27 points to lead the Tigers (22-12). Nathan Watson added 16 and shot 4 of 7 on 3-pointers.

‘We felt in control the whole game,’ Warrick said.

With their confidence buoyed by a pro-SU crowd, the Orangemen jumped out to a 10-2 lead. After a Warrick turnaround with 4:09 left in the first half, SU owned a 17-point advantage, its largest of the game.

Down 37-27 at the half, Auburn stormed back, cutting SU’s lead to four in the first 4:12 of the second half. Syracuse eventually stretched its lead to six with 42 seconds left, but the Tigers refused to fade.

Lewis Monroe’s 3-pointer with 30 seconds left cut the score to 73-70. Duany hit two free throws with 13 seconds remaining to give the Orangemen a five-point lead. Five seconds later, Auburn’s Watson nailed a 3. But on the next SU possession, Anthony threw a half-court inbounds pass to Pace, who raced down the court for a dunk to ice the game.

Pace’s slam was fitting, considering the burst of energy he provided SU.

‘I just wanted to hurry up and get the game over,’ Pace said of the Tigers’ late run.

Said Warrick: ‘(Pace) really sparked us. When he’s scoring like that, it really lifts the burden off Carmelo.’

For the second straight game, Anthony struggled in the first half, shooting 0 of 4. Duany made up for Anthony’s struggles, scoring eight of SU’s first 10 points.

Pace first entered the game with about seven minutes left in the first half. He played 22 minutes, five fewer than he logged in the Orangemen’s second-round win over Oklahoma State last Sunday. In Big East games this year, Pace played more than 20 minutes twice.

‘I just try to be ready,’ Pace said. ‘There’s really no way you can stay warm. You can’t have a bicycle over there. It’s just (that I’m) seeing more minutes. I was telling myself to be more aggressive.’

Pace proved especially effective in the second half, when the Tigers employed a triangle-and-two defense to try to slow Anthony and guard Gerry McNamara.

‘We got a like out of synch when they went with the triangle-and-two,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Josh made some key plays in there. We just had to find a way to hang on.’

Published on March 28, 2003 at 12:00 pm