Orangemen Too Much
February 08, 2003 03:21 PM | General
February 8, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Syracuse forward Carmelo Anthony showed West Virginia why he is one of the best freshmen in the country.
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| West Virginia's Drew Schifino looks for some room inside during Saturday's 94-80 loss to No. 19-ranked Syracuse. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Anthony made 12 of 17 shots to score a game-high 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead No. 19-ranked Syracuse to a 94-80 victory Saturday at the WVU Coliseum.
It wasn’t all Anthony either. His supporting cast of Hakim Warrick, Billy Edelin, Gerry McNamara and Kueth Duany combined for 61 points to lead the Orangemen to the most points in a game at the Coliseum by an opponent since Boston College scored 96 on March 3, 2001.
Warrick and Edelin had 18 points, McNamara scored 14 points and handed out 12 assists and Duany had 11 for Syracuse, now 16-3, 7-2.
“To be down 15 on the road and come back and win is very good,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.
“I didn’t like the tempo of the game,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “If they scored 90 we were going to lose. Jim sped up the tempo and now all of the sudden we got into a running game and our defensive transition today was the worst it’s been all year.”
Drew Schifino led West Virginia, now 12-8, 3-5, with 25 points although he made just 9 of 24 field goal attempts before fouling out with 36 seconds left.
“I really think he’s staying in games longer than most guys who play at the tempo that he does,” said Beilein. “Yeah, he might have gotten fouled a few times but he kept coming at them. He’s still working on his decision making but here is a kid last year that had just 32 assists on the year and now he’s got double that. He’s really come a long way and it’s getting there little by little.”
Freshman Kevin Pittsnogle chipped in with 24 points and he also grabbed 7 rebounds.
West Virginia began the game on fire, making three-point baskets and layups to move out to a 31-16 lead with 11:33 left after a layup by Chaz Briggs.
“Everything we worked on all week, we went out there and forgot in the beginning of the game,” said Boeheim. “We didn’t want the big guy (Pittsnogle) to shoot outside and he was.”
But Syracuse answered with a 30-7 run to take an 8 point lead. McNamara capped the run with a 3-pointer with 3:25 left.
West Virginia fought back and scored the last 9 points of the half to take a slim, 47-46 lead into the locker room. A pair of baskets by Schifino, a layup by Joe Herber and a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Patrick Beilein made up the 9-point run.
“I thought we did a good job against the zone – it’s a very difficult thing to attack and we did a great job of executing against it,” said Beilein.
Syracuse went to work in the second half scoring the first 8 points to build a 7-point lead at 54-47, and expanded its margin to 11 at 77-66 after a McNamara jumper with 8:50 to go.
“We just couldn’t get enough pressure on the ball to keep the lob (from going to the basket). Then it’s a jump ball and they’re going to win that every single time,” said Beilein.
Syracuse’s biggest lead of the game was 15 at 83-68 after an alley-oop dunk by Warrick. West Virginia whittled its deficit to 9 at 89-80 before Syracuse scored the last five points of the game on free throws.
Syracuse shot 58.2 percent on 39 of 67 shooting.
The Orangemen also controlled the boards with a 43-31 advantage.
“They just did a great job with everything that they did and they just picked us apart the whole night long,” said Beilein.
West Virginia made 31 of 73 field goal attempts for 42.5 percent and shot 9 of 30 from 3-point distance for 30 percent.
“John is doing a great job with this team,” said Boeheim. “I watched a few of their games and they are a tough team to defend with all their great shooters.”
Saturday’s loss coupled with a Rutgers home win over Boston College keeps the heat on the Mountaineers. The Knights and Georgetown are now just a game behind West Virginia in the Big East west standings with 2-6 records.
WVU returns to the road for a difficult assignment at Pitt on Wednesday, Feb. 12. That game will tip off at 7 p.m.
