SYRACUSE - Boston College has supplanted Syracuse atop the Big East standings. The Orange want to begin to rectify matters.

And what better place to do it than on the road after two straight losses at home in the Carrier Dome, the latest a 68-64 loss to Pitt on Monday.

"We just have to go back at it on Saturday," said Hakim Warrick, who leads the ninth-ranked Orange in scoring at 20.5 points per game. "The great teams, they don't have two-game losing streaks. They don't have losing streaks. When we won the (2003 national) championship, we didn't have any two-game losing streaks."

There's already a buzz in the air in Boston about Saturday's matchup.

"Very excited," BC star Craig Smith said. "People keep talking about it. That's the game everybody has been waiting for - the two top teams in the conference."

It should be a tug of war.

Syracuse (22-4, 9-3 Big East) was the top team in the conference for much of the season. But after losing only one of their first 21 games, the Orange have dropped three of the last five - two to Pitt and one to Connecticut. However, Syracuse also has beaten Notre Dame twice, and the Irish handed the Eagles (21-1, 10-1 Big East) their lone loss of the season.

"Anytime Syracuse comes in, it's a big game," BC coach Al Skinner said. "Anytime a team comes in with a reputation, there's going to be excitement. I think the fans coming in here will be excited and, hopefully, we'll be excited."

Boston College is coming off a tough 74-64 victory over Rutgers on Wednesday night. Jared Dudley had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Sean Marshall scored 22 points as the Eagles escaped a mid-game scare to win their first game since that loss to Notre Dame ruined the chance at an unbeaten season.

"These games are the hardest because you don't want to get caught looking ahead," Dudley said.

"No one was talking about Rutgers. Everyone was talking about Syracuse. That's the game of the year."

Syracuse needed a miraculous second-half rally from 18 points behind to beat Rutgers on the road last month. BC just seems to win methodically, and the Eagles' confidence keeps soaring higher with each victory.

"They don't feel like they can lose right now," Rutgers coach Gary Waters said. "When the game gets close, everybody wants to take the shot. You can see it."

Both teams seem concerned about facing a zone defense. Pitt completed its sweep of Syracuse by utilizing a zone and foiling the Orange's vaunted 2-3 zone, which helped propel them to the national title two years ago.

The Panthers, who top the conference in rebounding defense, beat Syracuse on the boards, 41-32, snaring several for second-chance shots after Pitt players misfired on 3-pointers.

Dudley leads the Big East with 8.7 rebounds per game, and both he and Smith are tied with Pitt's Chevon Troutman for the conference lead with 3.45 offensive boards per game.

"We definitely have to do something to do a better job of getting in there against the zone," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, whose next victory will be No. 699. "We have to go for the ball more and get rebounds, a lot of long rebounds. Those are the key. We have done it in the past, we've done it all year. We just have to get the job done down the stretch."

In their championship season, Syracuse was nearly unbeatable at the end of close games.

This year's team showed promise early, but both Pitt and Connecticut took control of tight games late and won.

"Teams that win push us around," Syracuse center Craig Forth said. "We've been lucky that a few other teams haven't gotten us."

Fatigue might have been a factor in the last two losses because they were both on Mondays at home and came on the heels of Saturday wins - over Notre Dame and Villanova.

The Huskies were the first team to beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in nearly a year.

"We're just going through a lull in our season," Forth said.

"It's tough to play two games in three days and expect all of our shots to fall."

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Notes: BC's Craig Smith was fouled hard on a breakaway dunk attempt against Rutgers, came down hard after the shot, and took a while to get back up. He did not leave the game but wore an ice pack afterward. ... Syracuse's Gerry McNamara twisted his left ankle just before halftime of the Pitt game but was the only player on either team to log all 40 minutes.