ORANGE PEELED
No. 1 seed fumbles gift and chance at Final 4
No Final 4 for ’Cuse as Buckeyes bounce Boeheim; Pitino, Louisville head to New Orleans:
BOSTON — The last time the NCAA Tournament brought Syracuse to Boston, the Orange responded with victories over Manhattan and Oklahoma State on its way to the 2003 national championship.
This time around, the Orange fel l one victor y shy of keeping it s championship dream alive as top-seeded Syracuse’s deepest run in the tournament in nine seasons ended Saturday night with a 77-70 loss to No. 2 Ohio State in the East Regional final before 19,026 at the TD Garden.
The Buckeyes (31-7) moved on to the Final Four for the first time since reaching the national championship game in 2007 and will face the winner of Sunday’s North Carolina-kansas matchup in the semifinals Saturday in New Orleans.
But it’s the end of the line for Syracuse (34-3), which saw its season come to an end after posting a schoolrecord 34 victories. The loss to Ohio State also ran the Orange’s tournament record against Big Ten teams to a woeful 1-7, with the one victory coming Thursday night over Wisconsin.
The biggest culprit in Syracuse’s loss was not its Fab Meloless defense trying to find a way to stop the Buckeyes duo of Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas, but in not taking advantage of a huge gift handed the Orange when Sullinger (game-high 19 points) picked up his second foul at the 13:42 mark of the first half, one that sent the 6-9, 280-pounder to the bench for most of the half.
“We got Sullinger in foul trouble early and we didn’t take advantage of it,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “You know when he comes back in he’s going to be difficult, and he was. But I don’t think we had good movement (on offense), as good as we’ve had this year, in that 10-12 minutes at the end of the first half.”
Instead of making a run and putting some daylight between itself and the Buckeyes, Syracuse could manage nothing better than a 29-29 tie at halftime, and its lost opportunity would come back to haunt in the second half. The game was still knotted at 33
33 w it h 18:32 to play when Ohio State, behind Sullinger, who scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half, crafted a 12-3 run that gave the Buckeyes a 45-36 lead capped by Sullinger’s short jumper with 14:02 to play.
OSU’S lead would peak at 46-36 seconds later with a free throw by Lenzelle Smith Jr. (18 points), and the Orange was in a fight for its tournament life the rest of the game.
Syracuse did make one more spirited run at keeping its season alive as it systematically chipped away at the deficit until a free throw by Kris Joseph pulled the Orange within 52-51 with 7:43 to play.
But time and again the Orange couldn’t surge ahead, and Smith gave the Buckeyes a huge lift when he drained a 3-pointer just as the shot clock was expiring for a four-point lead. Brandon Triche gave Syracuse some life when he immediately answered with a three of his own to pull the Orange within 55-54. But OSU counterpunched with a quick 7-1 run for a 62-55 lead with 3:13 to play, and Syracuse never got closer than three the rest of the night.
“We got back into the game and then we got it to one, they made a three and we made a three and we just couldn’t quite make a play,” Boeheim said. “This was going to be an even game no matter what, and we just got it to one, and we really just couldn’t make a play.”
The Buckeyes also made quite the living from the free throw line, particularly in the second half, when OSU shot 23-of-29 from the stripe, including 13-of14 in the final 1:08 to secure the win — one that Sullinger is particularly savoring
“I appreciate everyone that doubted this basketball team, said we were the underdogs,” Sullinger said. “We weren’t good enough, mentally strong enough, not physically strong enough, mentally immature. We heard it all. I want to thank you all because through all the adversity we constantly pushed through. I mean, we all came from nothing, according to you all, to something now.”
The loss ended the careers of both Scoop Jardine (14 points) and Joseph, who “won more games in these four years than anybody in a senior class we’ve ever had,” Boeheim said.
It was hard to decipher if Jardine and Joseph were more upset at the loss or at the end of their days in orange.
“The loss hurts, but me not playing with these guys for the rest of my life is going to hurt even more,” Jardine said. “These are like my brothers, and we came up short today.”
“It’s tough,” said an emotional Joseph, who had 10 points and three steals in his swan-song game. “It’s real tough knowing my career is over and that I won’t play with these guys again.”