Syracuse N.Y. — And you thought Syracuse's win at Pittsburgh on Wednesday was a miracle.
While Syracuse beat Pittsburgh on Tyler Ennis' 35-footer at the buzzer, the Orange didn't even have the ball as it trailed North Carolina State in the waning seconds of Saturday's game at the Carrier Dome.
The No. 1-ranked Orange turned a late steal and a breakaway layup by C.J. Fair into a stunning 56-55 win over North Carolina State at the Carrier Dome on Saturday.
"I would say today,'' Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney said, ranking the improbability of the Orange's last two wins. "Definitely today.''
North Carolina State had a 55-54 lead and the ball with 13.7 seconds left in the game.
The Wolfpack inbounded the ball. Cooney and Jerami Grant trapped Anthony Barber in the corner in front of the State bench.
"The plan was not to foul,'' Grant said. "We knew if we trapped anybody in the corner, especially the point guard, he couldn't see over us. We knew he would have to throw the ball.''
Syracuse center Rakeem Christmas stepped in front of Barber's pass for the steal. He quickly threw the ball to Ennis, who took a couple dribbles before hitting Fair on the break.
"I told Rakeem the first pass, we're trapping, so be ready," Fair said. "He jumped it. And once I saw him get the ball, I just sprinted. I don't remember him passing it to Tyler. I just sprinted and I saw Tyler right next to me. He passed it ahead for me to make the layup."
Fair's shot put Syracuse ahead 56-55 with 6.7 seconds remaining.
Syracuse still hadn't won the game. The Orange had to survive a few more frantic seconds.
North Carolina State, which was out of timeouts, hurried up the court. The Wolfpack's T.J. Warren, who had a game-high 23 points, got off a decent shot, but it missed.
Syracuse remained undefeated at 25-0 on the season and 12-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
All game long, it was Syracuse, and not the Wolfpack, that played like its flight had been delayed for a day.
North Carolina State arrived in Syracuse just four hours prior to tipoff for a game that had already been pushed back from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. due to travel-related issues. All of the Wolfpack's travel pains were nothing compared to the pain of Saturday's loss.
"I'm proud of our guys,'' said N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried, whose team fell to 16-9 overall and 6-6 in the conference. "They played their hearts out. We didn't come up here just to play good and feel nice. We came to win and didn't get it done."
The Orange had amazingly won a game it had appeared almost certain to lose. For the second time in a week.
"This team has reacted well to every tough situation they've been in or put themselves in,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "That's something they should be really given a lot of credit for. To win games like this and Pittsburgh …''
Boeheim didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.
Christmas and Grant both registered double-doubles, but Syracuse's two standouts; Fair and Ennis, both struggled. Fair made just five of his 16 shots, while Ennis was 3-for-10 from the field.
Christmas finished the game with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Grant had 12 points and 14 boards.
It was fitting that Christmas' steal set up Fair's game-winning layup off an assist from Ennis.
Syracuse trailed 55-54 with 30 seconds left, but N.C. State had the ball. Ennis and Fair trapped State's Desmond Lee on the sideline, causing Lee to dribble the ball off his leg and out of bounds.
Destiny, once again, appeared to be on Syracuse's side.
Then, the huge crowd at the Carrier Dome watched in horror as Ennis committed his first turnover in the last minute of a game this season when he charged into Barber with 14.9 seconds left.
"I've been playing against Cat for the last couple summers,'' Ennis said. "He's done that a couple times. I should've known.''
North Carolina State had the ball back. On the ensuing inbounds play, State threw a long pass to Warren. Cooney desperately fouled Warren, who put up a shot that went in.
However, the referee ruled that Cooney had fouled Warren before the shot. That sent Gottfried stomping down the sideline in protest.
"That should have counted,'' Gottfried said. "That was a made basket to put us up three with T.J. going to the line to go up four. For them to take that away — I've already watched the tape — and I don't like that call. That changed things.''
Cooney disagreed.
"I fouled him at the foul line before he even took the step,'' Cooney said. "That's what you got to do. I knew we had a foul to give and I wanted to foul him early.''
The foul was just Syracuse's sixth of the half. Warren wouldn't even get a one-and-one.
The Wolfpack, which was out of timeouts, had to inbound the ball with 13.7 seconds left.
Rather than foul right away, the Orange hoped for a trap and a steal. They got it.
"It would've been easy to just foul the ball inbounds right away,'' Boeheim said. "They made a trap. They got the trap and they got the steal.''
N.C. State had turned the ball over just eight times for the game's first 39 minutes and 30 seconds. Now, the Wolfpack had lost the ball for the second time in the final seconds.
Christmas stepped in for the steal and immediately got the ball to Ennis.
"I saw C.J. running the floor,'' Ennis said. I just gave it up. I knew he was going to finish. I knew he wasn't going to let anybody; no matter how big they were, stop him from scoring.''
N.C. State's Ralston Turner tipped Fair's shot out of the basket and was called for goaltending.
A Syracuse team that has made a habit of coming up with big plays at the end of games really didn't on Saturday.
The Orange didn't make a shot for the game's last five minutes until Fair's last-second layup. Syracuse also missed three critical free throws in the last four minutes. Then there was Ennis' uncharacteristic offensive foul, which counts as a turnover.
"Down the stretch, it looked like this was going to be the first game that we made bad plays down the stretch,'' Boeheim said. "We missed a couple free throws, which we haven't. Jerami, Tyler and C.J. missed free throws that we've been making down the stretch. Tyler's made nothing but good plays and he made a couple bad ones tonight, which is really what you expect a freshman to do. He hasn't done that.''
But their backs up against the wall, the Orange came through again.
"You gotta find a way,'' said Boeheim. "We were able to do make a couple good plays finally at the end there and one big play.''
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