SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Arinze Onuaku matched his season high with 19 points, Paul Harris added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 8 Syracuse beat No. 12 Notre Dame 93-74 on Saturday.
The Orange (17-2, 5-1 Big East), coming off a loss at Georgetown that stopped a seven-game winning streak, snapped a three-game losing streak against the Irish (12-5, 3-3).
Jonny Flynn finished with 17 points and nine assists for Syracuse, while Rick Jackson had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Eric Devendorf 16 points and Andy Rautins 10 points.
Big East scoring leader Luke Harangody had 25 points and 16 rebounds, his 10th straight 20-point game and seventh consecutive double-double to lead the Irish. Kyle McAlarney finished with seven 3-pointers and 24 points and Ryan Ayers had 11 points.
It was the second straight game against a ranked opponent for both teams, and although the Orange built a big lead early, the game wasn’t decided until the final 5 minutes.
Harangody, staring at either Onuaku, Jackson, or Harris every time he turned toward the basket, found it tough going inside and shot 9-for-28 from the field against an inspired Orange man-to-man defense and managed just four rebounds in the second half.
The Orange outscored Notre Dame 54-24 in the paint, had 39 fast break points, and held the Irish to 35.5 percent shooting.
Syracuse jumped to a 13-point lead in the opening 10 minutes behind outbursts by Flynn, Onuaku and Rautins. Flynn hit his third 3 in a 3-minute span to give Syracuse a 15-12 lead at 14:21 send the Carrier Dome crowd of 30,021 into a frenzy.
The Orange never trailed again, but every time they seemed set to take command, the Irish came back.
After Harris hit only his third 3-pointer of the season and then followed Onuaku’s fast break miss, Syracuse had a 61-45 lead with 12:21 left. McAlarney, who had nine 3-pointers last season to key an Irish win over the Orange at the Joyce Center, hit two from beyond the arc and Notre Dame was within eight.
Jackson then dunked over Harangody and finished an eight-point spurt with a hook over the Irish star to give Syracuse a 16-point lead midway through the period.
The Irish responded with a 16-5 run and was back in contention after McAlarney faked Devendorf and drained a 3 to move Notre Dame within 74-69 with 5:15 remaining.
After Devendorf missed three straight shots, Flynn scored off an inbounds pass, Devendorf hit from the top of the key, and Flynn scored on a fast break layup off a feed from Devendorf to boost the lead to 82-72 with 3:03 to go.
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