ATLANTA — Syracuse fans in downtown Atlanta stood solemnly after Brandon Triche was called for a charge, fouling out with 19.2 seconds left and the Orange only down by a basket. But the mood wasn’t much different throughout the night in the Hudson Grille.

Though there was a brief burst of excitement after James Southerland hit a 3 with 40.3 seconds left in the game to bring the Orange within one point of Michigan, for most of the second half Syracuse fans in one of the official alumni spots quietly watched the Orange trail the Wolverines.

Michigan defeated Syracuse on Saturday night 61-56 in the Georgia Dome to advance to the national championship game of the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines play Louisville in the national championship on Monday night at 9:23 p.m.

Though Syracuse fans at the restaurant were noticeably upset with the outcome of the game, most said the team exceeded the expectations they had for the season.

“We got way further than what I thought,” said Theotis Whitlock, who traveled down from his home in Raleigh, N.C., and watched the game at the Hudson Grille. “It’s kind of bittersweet.”

Whitlock said he expected the Orange to win the national championship, but added that a couple of calls didn’t go the Orange’s way and that the team lost its composure toward the end.

David Lustig, a 2004 alumnus, seemed to feel the same way as Whitlock about the team.

“In many ways, this was a gift,” Lustig said, especially because of the way the Orange played during the end of the regular season. “But all in all, it would’ve been nice to see a win.”

Lustig, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, said he decided to travel down to Atlanta when watching one of Syracuse’s games in a University of Pittsburgh bar last week.

He said he had a lot of alumni friends coming down to watch the game and wanted to be at a place for the game with Syracuse fans everywhere.

“It’s a family,” he said.

Chris Chico, a 1998 alumnus who went to the game in the Georgia Dome and walked to the Hudson Grille afterward, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by how Syracuse was represented in Atlanta.

“To have everybody out here this past 3-4 days, it’s been awesome,” he said.

A few hundred Orange fans gathered at the grill. Many watched the game on the patio, as it was about 50 degrees and there was only a light breeze.

A group of street performers played for most of the first half on a nearby street corner, which mixed with sounds from the restaurant’s televisions and the Muse concert across the street at Centennial Olympic Park.

The grill, in the shadow of the CNN Center and Omni Hotel, sits about 10 minutes away from the Georgia Dome and was the designated pregame gathering spot. The branch in Sandy Springs, Ga., was the watch-spot for the game.

Despite this, there were several dozen Michigan fans in the restaurant hanging out in groups.

When there were still more than five minutes left, a small pocket of Michigan fans on the patio outside the restaurant started a “Let’s go Blue” chant that drowned out the Orange fans.

Though Syracuse fans would pump their fists into the air or even flip over their seats when the Orange made a 3 or drew a foul, many focused their attention back on the restaurant’s Samuel Adams pitchers when the team was trailing by 10 to 12 points.

There was still some optimism right before the second half when one Orange fan — who was slurring his words — pointed at the crowd on the patio and repeatedly shouted, “We’ll win this game.”

But most fans cleared out quickly while images of Michigan’s celebration played on the restaurant’s 20 televisions before them.

Published on April 7, 2013 at 12:17 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum