This Day in Dome History: January 24
1/24/2006 2:47:38 PM | Men's Basketball, Dome 25
The Syracuse men's basketball team has played eight times in the Carrier Dome during the past 25 years. The Orange has emerged victorious in five of those contests.
SU's game against Connecticut on this day in 2000 featured a matchup between two top 10 teams. The Orange entered the game ranked No. 4/5 while the Huskies were ranked No. 6. UConn took an early lead but Syracuse came back and tied the score at 16-16. SU held Connecticut to just two points during the next seven minutes and outscored the Huskies, 26-8 during the remainder of the first half to take a 44-26 halftime lead. Although Connecticut outscored the Orange in the second half, the deficit was too large to overcome as Syracuse posted an 88-74 victory. The win improved SU's record to a perfect 16-0. Ryan Blackwell and Etan Thomas each recorded double-doubles, while Jason Hart, Tony Bland, Damone Brown and DeShaun Williams also scored in double digits.
In 1999, Syracuse allowed the lowest point total for an opponent during the Jim Boeheim era in its 84-37 victory against South Carolina. SU went on a 27-4 scoring run during the final nine minutes of the first half to take a 37-14 halftime lead and control of the game. Hart led the Orange with 15 points, five assists and four steals. Eric Williams posted his second straight double-double.
Two of the Orange's wins on this date came against BIG EAST foe St. John's. In 1987, the Orange defeated the Red Storm, 64-63, in front of 30,529 fans. Dan Schayes scored 18 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead SU to a 79-71 win against St. John's in 1981. In 1989, Sherman Douglas scored 19 points to lead Syracuse to a 72-60 win against Boston College.
SU lost a heartbreaker to conference rival Georgetown on this date in 1988. After Syracuse took a one-point lead on Douglas' layup with nine seconds remaining, Georgetown's Charlie Smith converted a layup with one second left on the clock to give the Hoyas a 69-68 victory. A crowd of 32,419 gathered at the Loud House for the game, helping Syracuse to its fourth consecutive national attendance title.
In 1998, Etan Thomas set a single-game school record with nine blocked shots in SU's 63-54 loss to Connecticut. Thomas blocked nine shots in a game three times during his career and is Syracuse's all-time leader in blocked shots with 424.
Most recently, Syracuse lost to Pittsburgh, 66-45, on this date in 2004. Hakim Warrick led SU with 16 points. The game featured a season-high crowd of 31,347 fans, marking the 57th time more than 30,000 fans have turned out for a men's hoops contest at the Dome.
