NEW YORK – There wasn’t much offensive wizardry in the opener of the Jimmy V Classic, but No. 22 Oklahoma State managed to out-defend No. 21 Syracuse and come away with a 72-68 victory at Madison Square Garden last night.

OSU guard JamesOn Curry drained a 3-pointer with 36 seconds left to put the Cowboys (10-0) up 70-66 after Syracuse (7-2) rallied with 12 straight points to cut the 13-point lead to one at 67-66.

“”Coach (Sean Sutton) called a play, a double screen and told me to drive hard, but I knew I can shoot and it was an open shot, and I jumped up and took it,”” Curry said.

Syracuse freshman forward Paul Harris led the furious Orangeman comeback, scoring nine of his 11 points in the second half. Forward Demetrius Nichols scored 24 points for the Orangemen, but forward Mario Boggan scored 21 points and pulled down eight rebounds while Curry added 20 points for the undefeated Cowboys.

Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field, but the Cowboys turned the ball over 23 times and Syracuse didn’t do much better with 22 turnovers.

“”We should have won the game by 15, maybe even more but we had some careless plays that kind of set us back,”” said OSU forward Marcus Dove, who scored nine points off the bench.

Oklahoma State pulled away midway through the second half, gaining a 10-point advantage and holding Syracuse without a point for 6:53.

Neither Oklahoma State nor Syracuse carried more than a five-point lead in the first half. The Cowboys went into halftime with a 39-34 lead after a follow up dunk from guard Terrel Harris with three seconds remaining.

Oklahoma State last saw Arizona on the same court in the 2005 regional semifinals in Rosemont, Ill., when former UA guard Salim Stoudamire made a last-second jump shot to carry Arizona into the Elite Eight.