As the Carrier Dome scoreboard clock ticked toward zero, a fan walking behind the Syracuse bench turned and hurled insults at Craig Forth so loudly that a few players and coaches turned around.

Remarkably, the referees did not whistle the foul-mouthed fan for a technical foul.

Their whistles did, however, scream 47 other times to signal personal-foul calls and twice more to dole out technicals — one to Syracuse men?s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim and another to Boston College forward Andrew Bryant.

The latter allowed Syracuse to connect on four straight free throws that turned a slow, ugly game, which the Orangemen finally won last night, 82-74, in front of 20,692.

?I was scared to jump,? said SU center Jeremy McNeil, one of four Syracuse players to finish with four personal fouls. ?All I can do is stand there, or else they call a foul.?

The referees did that 31 times in the second half. For Syracuse, in addition to McNeil, Hakim Warrick, Josh Pace and Carmelo Anthony also collected a quartet of fouls. Forth fouled out with almost 13 minutes remaining, and with 14 minutes left, the Orangemen had already collected their seventh team foul.

But time after time, Boston College, which shot 57 percent from the free-throw line, failed to capitalize. Worse, at the most crucial juncture, the Eagles allowed the Orangemen to shoot too many free throws.

After BC used a 16-2 run to take a five-point lead with 10:24 remaining in the second half, Bryant fouled Anthony to give SU the ball. He then committed another foul on the inbound pass. As he barked about the call, seemingly to no one in particular, the referee docked him with a technical.

McNamara hit the two free throws from the technical, and Anthony followed by converting both shots on a one-and-one to close the score to 59-58. The Eagles never recovered, as Syracuse went on to not only snatch the lead but also stretch it to 73-62 with 3:36 left.

?We should?ve played through it, but I felt (Bryant?s technical) shouldn?t have been called,? said Boston College forward Craig Smith, who finished with 26 points but fouled out with 1:19 left. ?(Bryant) wasn?t talking to the ref. He was talking to himself. It shouldn?t have been called.?

Boeheim felt the same about his technical, which he picked up a little more than three minutes into the second half. The coach was whistled when he protested what appeared to be a soft call on Forth.

?I haven?t got a technical in so long I can?t remember,? Boeheim said. ?Craig didn?t move. It was a horrible call. I said, ?What?s that?? That?s not a technical. That was horrible.?

Fortunately for Boeheim, his team?s free-throw shooting was not as horrible as the Eagles?. Although SU finished 65 percent from the line, it made 7 of 8 down the stretch as Boston College fouled in desperation.

Warrick hit five of his last six free throws, and McNamara, who has not missed in his last 30 free-throw attempts, went 4 for 4.

?This season, from the beginning, we?ve been criticized for free throws,? said McNamara, who posted 20 points despite being guarded by BC star guard Troy Bell. ?But the last two games, we?ve put the game away from the free-throw line.?

It was almost over well before that, as Syracuse grabbed a big lead early and appeared poised to run away. After BC led, 4-3, Syracuse went on a 13-0 run. Thanks in part to the Eagles hitting just 9 of their first 25 shots, the Orangemen pushed their lead to 40-25.

A 7-0 Boston College run closed the score to 40-32 at halftime and set up the second-half comeback. But 16 missed three throws clipped the Eagles.

?(Free-throw shooting) has been a problem for us all year,? BC head coach Al Skinner said. ?If we made our free throws, it?s a different game. But we?re not a good free-throw shooting team.?

Published on January 11, 2003 at 12:00 pm