TAMPA, Fla. -- Jim Boeheim felt fortunate.
No. 13 Syracuse struggled to make free throws and had difficulty making layups, too. Still, the Orange held off South Florida 59-54 Friday night, thanks to timely contributions from Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf.
Flynn made a key jumper with 2 minutes to go and Devendorf hit two foul shots in the closing seconds.
"We were just hanging on at the end. ... We should have taken control of the game, and we didn't," Boeheim said.
Andy Rautins scored 14 points and Arinze Onuaku added 13 for the Orange, who led by 16 at halftime, then struggled to put the game away until Devendorf stepped to the line and calmly sank both ends of a 1-and-1 with 19.2 seconds remaining.
"I know when I'm at the free-throw line, I'm going to knock them down," said Devendorf, who was slowed in the second half by a hip-pointer. "I just went up there and took my time and knocked them both down."
Syracuse (14-1, 2-0 Big East) scored the last 11 points of the opening half to take a 35-19 lead at the break and appeared to be headed for an easy victory before Dominique Jones made a pair of 3-pointers to begin a methodical comeback.
USF (5-8, 0-1) pulled to 55-52 before Flynn's jumper gave the Orange breathing room.
"First answer: I'm not interested in moral victories," USF coach Stan Heath said before a question was even asked during his postgame news conference.
"But I am proud the we showed a lot of character and more toughness in the second half. We're going to need to be that way. We need to be a team that's going to scrap and outwork and not give up the easy basket we did in the first half."
Syracuse played without forward Paul Harris, the team's third-leading scorer. He cut his right ring finger during Tuesday's 24-point rout of Seton Hall, but his absence wasn't as much of a factor as the team's ineffective free-throw shooting.
The Orange went 7-for-18 from the line, and Onuaku was 1-for-9.
"He was shooting it better in the beginning. ... Now he's really just throwing it up there. He's not even shooting. It has no chance to go in," Boeheim said.
USF, beginning its fourth season in the Big East, dropped to 7-44 in conference play, although one of those victories was an 89-78 win a year ago in Syracuse's previous visit to the Sun Dome.
Devendorf came off the bench for the second consecutive game since returning from a school suspension for his role in an off-campus altercation with a female student in November.
The 6-foot-4 junior was reinstated last month after completing 40 hours of community service, and he scored 20 points against Seton Hall after missing the previous two games. He finished with eight Friday night, including two baskets in the 11-0 run Syracuse put together to end the first half.
Jones, coming off a 36-point performance in a win over Iona, scored 17 for USF, which has lost seven of nine after a 3-1 start. He was 4-of-8 on 3-point attempts, but the rest of the Bulls went 0-for-19 from beyond the arc.
Jesus Verdejo, USF's second-leading scorer at 16.3 per game, was limited to six points on 3-for-17 shooting. He was 0-for-10 on 3-point attempts.
Mobolaji Ajayi scored 15 for USF, which cut the Syracuse lead to 55-52 on a steal and Jones' breakaway layup with 3:12 to go. Flynn answered with his jumper, capping a quiet night offensively for Syracuse's leading scorer, who had 11 points -- six below his average.
"I got a little nervous. But at the same time, you can't lose your composure," Syracuse's Kris Joseph said. "You have to stay composed and just rely on your teammates, trust each other to know that we're going to win the game."
