Orange Squeeze WVU

By John Antonik for WVUsports.com
February 14, 2011 10:04 PM

West Virginia's Casey Mitchell walks off the court after the Mountaineers lost to Syracuse 63-52 in an NCAA college basketball game in Syracuse, N.Y.

AP photo

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Brandon Triche scored 20 points and Kris Joseph added 16 to lead 17th-ranked Syracuse to a 63-52 victory over West Virginia Monday night at the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse (21-6, 8-6) came into the game having lost three in a row at home for the first time since 2002. Tonight, the Orange forced 16 West Virginia turnovers and limited the Mountaineers to just 36.2% shooting for the game. West Virginia actually had more second-half turnovers (9) than field goals made (7); 11 of West Virginia’s 17 field goals came from 3, Casey Mitchell hitting seven of those.

Mitchell finished with a game-high 23 points.

The Mountaineers, now 1-9 all-time at the Carrier Dome and 1-12 in their last 13 games against Syracuse, had plenty of chances on Monday night. West Virginia led by six late in the first half, and had a 32-26 lead early in the second half before Syracuse went on a 17-5 run to take a 43-35 advantage.

“They came out in the second half with the idea that they were going to drive it on us,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “They drove it at us for a three-point play and they drove it again at us and scored, and then they came off a screen and hit a 3. It was at least eight points and we don’t come down and get shots.”

Mitchell stopped the run with a 3, and another Mitchell 3 with 13:04 remaining cut Syracuse’s lead to two, 44-42.

But Rick Jackson answered with a dunk and Triche added a traditional three-point play when he was fouled by Joe Mazzulla while driving to the basket. West Virginia fought back and got the deficit down to two, 51-49, when Jones hit a foul line jumper with 8:28 remaining.

Then twice the Mountaineers threw away good scoring opportunities on consecutive possessions and both turnovers led to Syracuse baskets to take its lead back out to eight, 57-49.

“We turned it over at two critical times,” said Huggins.

Huggins used his final timeout with 6:25 left and West Virginia made its last field goal with 5:20 to go on another Mitchell 3.

“I thought we played tough tonight when we had to,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. “That’s a good sign because we are a good team.”

Syracuse shot 46% for the game but made 52% of its shot attempts in the second half, a recurring theme for the Mountaineers of late. West Virginia’s last four opponents have each made more than half its second-half field goal attempts.

On the flip side, the Mountaineers made just 7 of their 25 second-half field goal tries for 28%. WVU was only 6 of 25 from inside the 3-point arc against the Orange.

In addition to Mitchell’s 23, John Flowers finished with 10. Jackson scored 10 and grabbed nine rebounds for Syracuse.

“They get 12 offensive rebounds and we get nine, we get out-rebounded by seven, we turn it over more than they do, they have seven more shots and shoot seven more free throws – we’re not going to win,” said Huggins. “It’s simple.”

The loss drops West Virginia (16-9, 76-6) into ninth place in the Big East standings with a home game coming up this Saturday against second-place Notre Dame, now ranked seventh in the country with a 21-4 overall record and a 10-3 mark in Big East play. Notre Dame is the only team to beat fourth-ranked Pitt so far in conference action this season.

That game will tipoff at 1 p.m. and will be televised nationally on CBS.

[View Category Article List]