NEW ORLEANS – That smile – the one that, win or lose, Carmelo Anthony keeps stretched across his face – just got a little wider.

Anthony scored a career-high 33 points and collected 14 rebounds last night, helping the Syracuse men’s basketball team to a 95-84 win over Texas in front of 54,432 at the Louisiana Superdome. The win vaults Syracuse into the national championship game for the first time since 1996.

‘It doesn’t get much better than this,’ Anthony said. ‘Playing in the championship game? That’s like the biggest event besides the Super Bowl.’

The Orangemen face Kansas here Monday night. The Jayhawks advanced by pummeling Marquette, 91-64, prior to the SU game.

Anthony had plenty of help last night, as four Orangemen scored in double-figures. Brandon Mouton led Texas with 25.

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Anthony, standing near the Texas bench, pumped his fists and looked toward the crowd. He saw a swath of orange-clad fans bouncing up and down. Ten minutes after the game, chants of ‘Let’s go orange,’ rang through the Superdome’s bowels.

Anthony had given them reason to celebrate. He easily discarded Texas defenders in reaching the 30-point plateau for the first time since March 9, when SU beat Rutgers in the regular-season finale.

With Royal Ivey ineffectively guarding Anthony, Texas switched and stuck Mouton on him six minutes into the second half. Anthony, who had 25 points at the time, responded by drawing two fouls from Mouton in one possession.

‘He’s a great player,’ Mouton said. ‘He knows how to use his body to get shots. But it’s more than a one-man show. They play well as a team.’

Indeed, for all his heroics, Anthony was silent during the key run. That was started, innocently enough, with two free throws from Josh Pace to give SU a 63-61 lead. Then came a Gerry McNamara 3. Then an awe-inspiring Hakim Warrick dunk. A McNamara jumper, and the Orangemen had taken a 70-63 lead.

‘I got my teammates open tonight,’ Anthony said. ‘That was the most important part. I got my teammates involved.’

Said SU head coach Jim Boeheim: ‘We have other guys that are really capable, guys that can make plays. You know, defenses look for him so much that we do give some opportunities to other guys.’

Anthony still added the exclamation point, hitting a jumper over Sydmill Harris to push the lead to 76-66. On the next possession, he tiptoed around Mouton and two-handed the ball through the basket, giving Syracuse a 12-point lead, its largest to that point.

Texas made one final push, closing the score to 85-81 with 1:06 left after a Brian Boddicker 3-pointer. But Anthony’s layup with 40 seconds remaining extended the SU advantage to seven, putting the game out of reach.

The Longhorns were lucky it wasn’t over long before that. Syracuse’s 55 percent first-half shooting and 48 first-half points could have buried Texas. But 20 points from Mouton kept Texas close, and SU led just 48-45 at the break.

Mouton scored the Longhorns’ first 10 points and first five field goals. With 9:44 remaining in the first half, Texas trailed, 28-20. At that time, no Longhorn besides Mouton (15 points) and Ford (5) had scored.

SU, meanwhile, touted a balanced first-half attack led by 16 from Anthony. Warrick and McNamara added 10 apiece.

‘People forget about our other weapons,’ SU guard Billy Edelin said. ‘That works to our advantage.’ One more win and Anthony will have so much more to smile about.

‘He carried us tonight,’ McNamara said. ‘Hopefully he can do it again Monday.’

Published on April 5, 2003 at 12:00 pm