The Syracuse Smash was up against it.

The team hadn't played a home game in more than a month. It was playing less than 48 hours after a heartbreaking loss in double-overtime at Albany. Its time slot was opposite the Syracuse University men's basketball team, which was on national television. And it was playing its first game without superstar Paul Gait, who was traded Saturday to Pittsburgh for draft choices and cash.

Those factors aside, the Smash played a gritty game while falling to the New York Saints 15-13 Sunday at the Onondaga County War Memorial. While 29,000-plus cheered on the basketball Orangemen in the Carrier Dome, an announced crowd of 1,846 watched the Smash lose for the fifth time in five tries this season.

Those who did show up watched Syracuse come out sluggish and fall behind 5-1 after one quarter, then fight back several times to tie the score and finally take a 13-12 lead on a breakaway goal by Tony Millon with 10 minutes, 55 seconds to play.

That was the team's last gasp, though, as New York (3-3) tied the score on a power-play goal by Jason Wulder with 9 minutes, 55 seconds to go and got the game-winner with 5:36 left when former SU star Roy Colsey III scored his sixth goal of the game.

The loss left Syracuse, which doesn't play again until 3 March at Toronto, all but out of the playoff hunt in the eight-team National Lacrosse League with seven games left in the regular season. The Smash has lost its last four games by a total of five goals, a fact that is beginning to wear on it.

"We can't get the monkey off our back," said Jim Morrissey, who helped the Smash rally from the early deficit with his first two goals of the season. "Basically, we've got to keep fighting."

The Smash has shown plenty of fight since a season-opening 16-6 loss to Rochester, but it hasn't been able to get over the hump. It lost to the Saints 14-13 on 15 January, blew a five-goal fourth-quarter lead and lost 22-21 to Buffalo and then scored three goals in the last 1:30 Friday at Albany before losing 13-12 in double overtime.

"That is amazing," Smash coach Pat Donahue said. "We're so close. We're playing well, showing great effort. It's just a question of where is that other goal?"

Sunday's game left Donahue shaking his head, both in admiration of the effort his team displayed and in frustration that it had come up just short again.

"Coming off a heartbreaking, hard-fought double-overtime game and losing by one," he said, "a game in which we had an extremely excellent effort, you would expect us to have a letdown. And we did early, but we fought back. We showed a lot of character out there. This team continues to fight."

If Gait was missed, it didn't show up in the scoreboard. The Smash averaged 13 goals a game with Gait in the lineup during its first four losses; it matched that number Sunday. Second-year player John Fay scored a season-high three goals, Morrissey had two and Todd Oudemool scored his first goal of the season in Gait's absence.

"Basically, other people have to step up," Morrissey said. "Guys like myself and John Fay have to take our games to another level. It's unfortunate not to have Paul Gait in the lineup. He's one of the game's greatest players. But we have some quickness, some athletic guys out there. We just have to keep trying."

With or without Gait, who scored three goals and assisted on three others to help Pittsburgh defeat Buffalo 17-14 Saturday night, the Smash is still a goal or two short of getting over the hump.

BOX SUMMARY
                                  1  2  3  4     TOT
New York Saints (3-4)             5  2  5  3  --  15
Syracuse Smash (0-5)              1  5  6  1  --  13

NEW YORK SAINTS               SYRACUSE SMASH
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS

Individual stats currently unavailable.

Shots on goal           60    Shots on goal           58
Saves made by           45    Saves made by           45
   Nash                          Collins

*** ALL STATS UNOFFICIAL UNTIL VERIFIED ***