Syracuse, N.Y. – In their locker room prior to Saturday’s game, the Syracuse Orange players took a moment of silence.

Or maybe a moment of silent reflection.

The Orange went into Saturday’s game against Notre Dame at a crossroads. Saddled with an 8-9 record and coming off an embarrassing 85-61 home loss to Louisville last Tuesday, there were decisions to be made about how to approach the last half of the season.

So prior to the game, Syracuse coach Adrian Autry challenged his players to think about how they wanted to play.

“Coach Red before the game today talked about choices,’’ SU forward Jyare Davis said. “Throughout a basketball game and throughout life in general, you have a thousand choices you make where you have to decide what type of man you want to be.

“You decide what type of competitor you want to be.’’

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And then Autry had his team sit in silence and think about how it wanted to play against a Notre Dame team that had beaten the Orange, 69-65, back on Dec. 7 in South Bend, Indiana.

It sounded like a great speech. Knute Rockne, speaking of the Fighting Irish, would have been proud.

But instead of winning one for the Gipper, or even injured freshman Donnie Freeman, the Syracuse players proceeded to stumble right out of the gate.

Notre Dame scored the first 11 points of the game. Syracuse missed its first six shots.

So much for pregame pep-talks.

“For real, it resonated with us,’’ SU reserve guard Kyle Cuffe said of Autry’s address. “The game is still 40 minutes. We knew we could come back.’’

What happened next was, if not miraculous, still fairly remarkable.

Syracuse, trailing by 17 points and hearing boos wafting down from various parts of the dome, staged an incredible rally for a 77-69 win. A struggling team that has fielded its opening night starting lineup just once since Thanksgiving pushed its way back to .500 (9-9) on the season.

While Autry opened his post-game press conference by thanking the fans’ support, especially as the Orange came back down the stretch, Syracuse guard JJ Starling had a message for the boo-birds.

“If they want to boo,’’ Starling said, “don’t come to the next game.’’

Down 25-8 midway through the first half, Syracuse cut into Notre Dame’s lead. But the Irish still led 42-33 at the break.

According to Autry and the Orange players, there was more soul-searching at halftime.

“We had a tough choice to make a halftime,’’ Davis said. “Either you could pack it up and say, ‘All right, it’s not our night tonight, try again next game.’

“Or we can continue to fight and come back. He told us it’s on us to make a choice right there. Right then and right now. And we made a choice to come back and fight hard.’’

The Orange buckled down on defense. After giving up 42 points in the first half, Syracuse held Notre Dame to just 27 points after halftime.

The Orange forged its way back into the game with a 9-2 run to start the second half, but there were still plenty of obstacles to climb.

Syracuse knotted the score for the first time since 0-0 when Starling made three free throws with 5:06 remaining. The Orange grabbed its first lead of the game at 67-65 on center Eddie Lampkin’s putback basket with 3:53 left.

Starling’s score on a reverse under the basket gave Syracuse a 69-65 lead with 3 minutes left.

It would be last field goal Syracuse would make. One more challenge for the Orange to overcome.

“Everyone has choices,’’ Autry had told his team before the game. “When you wake up in the morning, we talked about that you can choose to defend. You can choose to get the 50-50 balls. You can make that extra run, that extra rotation.’’

That’s how Syracuse survived the next 3 nerve-wracking minutes. No easy shots. Just a lot of grit.

Syracuse forced Notre Dame to miss a pair of 3-pointers. Up by four, the Orange players fought for four offensive rebounds on one offensive possession.

On arguably the play of the game, Cuffe created a foul on Notre Dame’s Tae Davis.

Syracuse led by just two points as Cuffe picked up Notre Dame guard Markus Burton and stuck with him as Davis came out to set a screen. Davis stuck his hip out and was called for an illegal screen with 16 seconds left.

When Notre Dame cut the Orange lead to 70-69, Cuffe went to the free throw line with 7.8 seconds left. Syracuse was 14-for-24 at the line on the day, but Cuffe calmly made two free throws for a 72-69 lead.

Burton missed a 3-pointer that could have tied the game and, aside from Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry going ballistic and receiving two technical fouls and an ejection with less than a second on the clock, the game had met its thrilling finish.

“I’m just so proud of the way they defended,’’ Autry said. “The way they were tough. The way they were resilient through everything that’s going on right now.

“These guys came out here (and) they played hard. They played tough. And you know, and that’s how it has to be going forward.’’

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