NEW YORK – After playing the second-longest game in Division-I history – an exhausting six-overtime thriller against No. 3 Connecticut that lasted until almost 2 a.m. and spanned nearly four hours – Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris couldn’t fall asleep.

The Syracuse teammates and road roommates got back to the team hotel after grabbing some food, and stayed up until nearly 7 a.m. watching highlights, talking on the phone, and hanging out. They should have been tired. But they were both too amped up to sleep.

‘The adrenaline was just flowing about the win,’ Harris said. ‘We were so happy.’

It was the same story Wednesday night, when adrenaline and excitement took the place of fatigue as Syracuse rode its momentum to a 74-69 overtime win against West Virginia at Madison Square Garden in front of 19,375. The win, Syracuse’s sixth in a row, propelled the team into the conference finals against No. 5 Louisville Friday (9 p.m. ESPN).

By the time the final horn sounded, the Orange had played 115 minutes of basketball in a little more than 24 hours. Flynn played 112 of those minutes, including all 45 Friday, but said a mind-over-matter approach helped him stay in the game. He finished with 15 points and nine assists after sleeping for only three hours the night before and taking an afternoon nap.

‘If I were to say I didn’t feel that, I would be lying,’ Flynn said of his minutes. ‘The thing you have to do, you have to overcome that. There’s a lot of obstacles you have to overcome, and fatigue is one of them. You have to be strong mentally.’

Showing almost no ill effects from the night before, Syracuse climbed out to a seven-point halftime lead behind an aggressive zone defense, which SU head coach Jim Boeheim said was ‘the difference.’ The Mountaineers were held to 29 first-half points, while Syracuse scored 36 – capped off by a 55-foot swish by guard Eric Devendorf at the end of the first half. Devendorf finished with a game-high 26 points.

One of the reasons SU was able to appear fresh was the slow pace of the game. Boeheim said that if his team played a pressure-defense team like Louisville, fatigue would have been much more of a factor. Against the slow-it-down pace of West Virginia, any affects of fatigue were minimized.

West Virginia crept back in the second half and tied the game late when forward Devin Ebanks hit two free throws with less than 10 seconds left. By that time, the physical toll was beginning to show for Syracuse. The Orange scored only 27 second-half points, and three in the last 3:55 of regulation.

‘At the end, I think both team were a little tired,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s their third game, you know, in three days so I think both teams could have been a little tired.’

After taking six overtime sessions to finish off Connecticut the night before, the Orange seemed determined to end Friday’s affair quicker. Harris made a layup in the team’s first possession after winning the tipoff, and the Orange scored the first six points of the overtime en route to the five-point win.

Three of Syracuse’s last four games have now been decided in overtime. While that makes for some sore legs as players pile up minutes, it has helped build team confidence as the NCAA Tournament inches closer. The team is 5-0 in overtime games this season.

‘After last night I think we’re pretty good in overtime,’ SU forward Kristof Ongenaet said. ‘So I think we’re a tough team to beat and I think we were stronger than yesterday.’

What’s waiting for SU, though, may be its toughest challenge yet. Louisville, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, has won its two Big East tournament games by an average of 16 points, and has won its last nine consecutive games.

So if there’s one thing Boeheim knows, it’s that SU will need all its energy.

‘Tomorrow night, we will be pressured for 40 minutes,’ Boeheim said. ‘Because that’s what Louisville does.’

kbaustin@syr.edu

Published on March 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm