Syracuse, N.Y. -- They'd watched the home team cough up all of what had been a 13-point lead and understood that it now trailed by four, but that didn't much matter with 6:11 remaining in the fourth quarter on Sunday evening when nearly everybody in the Carrier Dome rose during a timeout and roared.

Sure, they'd come to see the Syracuse University Orange upset seventh-ranked Notre Dame, and that chance certainly seemed to be slipping away. But the bigger deal for those in the house was always to make history. And they'd been advised just then by the P.A. guy that they had.

The fannies had been counted, they were told, and the number, posted in can't-miss-'em numerals on the scoreboards, was 11,021. And, oh, the noise. You'd have thought the Pearl had just staggered Boston College with another half-court heave.

Sort of, anyway.

"It was amazing," said Alexis Peterson, SU's senior guard who torched the Fighting Irish with 19 points (on 11 official shots) when not handing out 14 assists. "It was great for us. It felt like an (NCAA) Tournament environment. It took me back to when we played in the Sweet 16, Elite 8 and Final Four. ... We can't thank the fans enough for coming out and supporting us the way they did."

No, the Orange, which had four of its athletes score 18 or 19 points and still lost 85-80, didn't knock off Notre Dame. But as the Irish (25-3) are a fortress in women's basketball, there was no shame in that.

The visitors, after all, had begun the season rated No. 1 in the country, were unbeaten until running into Connecticut on Pearl Harbor Day and are three points away from a 14-game winning streak. Moreover, the Irish had been 30-2 against Syracuse in a series dating back to 1988, hadn't lost to SU in 15 years and had been unbeaten in 11 cracks at Quentin Hillsman's clubs.

So the defeat, while stinging a bit, was hardly a surprise. But the size of the gathering that witnessed it was a borderline shock ... and never mind that the assemblage would have looked even more robust if it had been allowed to collect in a building meant for basketball and not for Monster Jams.

Indeed, at 11,021, it was roughly 21/2 times bigger than the previous largest throng to watch an Orange women's home affair -- the one of 4,357 that had turned out to watch UConn throttle the locals by 41 points in 2012.

Two. And. A. Half. Times.

And, yes, the boss noticed.

"I feel really good about us breaking the record," said Hillsman, whose 21st-ranked bunch is now 18-9. "But breaking it like that was truly remarkable. I knew we'd get a good crowd. People told me they were coming, and they told me they were bringing people with them. And they did. But 11,000 is a number that you just don't envision until you see them in the stands.

"It's difficult to lose, but to have that many people in here made it less difficult. I think the crowd helped us. It charged our players up. It might have been a 15-to-20-point loss if they weren't there. So that crowd mattered."

And, absolutely, it had made Hillsman -- who'd grabbed the Dome microphone and said, "Excuse me," before thanking those in the pews as they prepared to leave -- very nearly burst with pride. Remember, he's 226-105 since ending his first season in our town at 9-20 and he did take his bunch to the NCAA Tournament's title affair last April.

So what he's planted and watered and otherwise nurtured over this past decade has bloomed before all those Central New York eyes. And on almost the happiest of evenings his creation was not merely cheered, but embraced by those 11,021 men and women and boys and girls, who were given a basketball sundae, even if it did lack the cherry on top.

"I think we should build on it," said Hillsman, whose squad will play Wake Forest on Thursday in this season's Dome finale. "We lost, but people saw a good game against a good team and watched our kids compete at a high level. It's always about the product. Whatever you're buying, you want it to be good. And I think we have a good product. Let's hope they come back."

Call the neighbors.