Wilkes-Barre, PA. – Gerry McNamara brought the fans to the arena. Demetris Nichols gave them the performance they came to see.

In Tuesday night’s game against Towson billed as McNamara’s homecoming, Nichols paced Syracuse with 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting to give the Orange an 86-52 win in front of a sold-out crowd of 8,209 at the Wachovia Arena.

With the game played 20 miles south of McNamara’s native Scranton, Pa. on Interstate-81, the contest had gained hype as the return of the pride of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

McNamara delivered 20 points and seven assists in front of the thousands of fans wearing Syracuse colors, but it was Nichols and the best shooting performance of his career that took the day for the Orange.

‘Demetris is a great player,’ McNamara said. ‘That’s what great players do, they play well. …We expect him to play that way; he expects himself to play that way.’

The Nichols-McNamara tag team started fast for SU as the two combined for 10 points in the game’s first 10 minutes.

The Tigers (3-6) kept pace for the first 12 minutes of the first half, cutting the Orange lead to 20-15 with 8:32 to play. SU (10-2) then used a 22-5 run to end the half and not look back in its victory.

Syracuse would later establish its largest lead of the game at 37 in the second half before settling on the final victory margin of 34. McNamara’s contributions came despite Towson’s insistence on double-teaming and man-guarding him all game.

‘That’s the advantage to having Gerry McNamara,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘It’s a whole hell of a lot easier (for other players) when you’re getting open looks.’

A balanced scoring attack, vastly superior rebounding and what Boeheim called one of SU’s best defensive efforts of the season made the difference between the two teams painfully obvious.

All five SU starters scored in the game’s first five minutes and nine Orange players scored in the entire contest.

SU outrebounded Towson by 17 and totaled seven blocks and 17 steals.

‘Defensively I think we were very active,’ Boeheim said. ‘The big key was we did very well on the boards and we were much more active on defense.’

Still, even with the team concept fully on display, Nichols and McNamara controlled the game – Nichols by performance and McNamara by legendry.

In pregame introductions, it was McNamara who expectedly received the loudest ovation from his hometown followers. When Boeheim finally removed his senior star with 3:56 to play, McNamara received a standing ovation and ‘Ger-ry’ chants from the throngs in No. 3 jerseys and ‘Gerrycuse’ shirts.

‘How many fans does this (arena) hold, 8,000?’ McNamara said. ‘No, seriously, I probably knew about 5,000 of them. I’ve come across 5,000 of them anyway.’

But Nichols, who drew little reaction from the crowd to start the game, earned an ovation of his own when he left the contest one point short of his career high with 5:38 to play. Nichols’ only two misses came from beyond the 3-point line, where he shot 4-of-6.

‘I’m so proud of the kid,’ SU assistant coach Mike Hopkins said. ‘Every team is going to be keyed on stopping Gerry McNamara. To have guys that can step up and have big nights like Demetris is really huge for us.’

Towson, which only tied the score once at 11-11 and never held a lead offered no more to Syracuse than a sacrificial lamb in the non-conference season.

When scheduling McNamara’s homecoming that may have been the intention. But his overall performance – which also included five rebounds and five steals – coupled with Nichols’ emergence ensured the Orange would head back north confident after a circus-like buildup in what felt like an SU home game.

‘Now I think it can get back to being normal again,’ McNamara said, ‘take that trip back up 81-North.’

Published on December 26, 2005 at 12:00 pm