The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Rachel Fus

A shirtless Johnny Flynn, just having received treatment for his bruised back, slowly walked to his locker where a group of reporters were staked out. He threw tiny white packs of ibuprofen pills next to his cell phone and sat down with a smile.

"Game over. Adrenaline's worn off," he said. "It's back to the hard times."

The injured Flynn was clearly the difference in Syracuse's 88-72 win over Maryland Thursday night in the second round of the NIT with 14,768 fans at the Carrier Dome.

Two days after sitting out the entire second half against Robert Morris, Flynn scored 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting. He played 34 grueling minutes, repeatedly hitting the floor and sending a collective gasp through the crowd. He had seven assists, some of which Orange head coach Jim Boeheim called among his best of the season.

And he was all smiles. Mostly.

"During the game, the only time I was really feeling it was the first TV timeout," Flynn said of the pain. "I came out, got a little tight. So I'm like, let me stand up and get myself moving around so I can keep my blood flowing."

Flynn has five full days to rest until Syracuse's (21-13) next game, the NIT quarterfinals, which is in the Carrier Dome on Tuesday against the winner of the Massachusetts-Akron game Saturday.

The Syracuse players said they could see it at times, but it didn't look like Flynn's bruised back, suffered during the Orange's first-round exit from the Big East tournament against Villanova eight days ago, affected his play.

Flynn was 5-for-6 from the field in the second half, including two key 3-pointers. The second one put Syracuse up by nine points with 7:54 to go in the game, and the lead never shrank.

"He looked as good as he's played all year," Boeheim said. "He broke the game open, hit a couple big shots and then made a couple big, big pass plays when he got in the lane, found people. Really two of the best passes he's made all year in the lane."

Flynn led SU in scoring, but three others in double figures aided the cause. Paul Harris had another double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Donte Greene had 16 points and Arinze Onuaku had 14 points and 14 rebounds.

It was an all-around effort, but Syracuse needed every minute it got out of Flynn.

After holding a two-point lead following a back-and-forth first half, with a combined 48 points scored in the paint by both teams. There wasn't much defense, long shooting or time to breath.

Continued...

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