Doomed in the Dome
February 20, 2006 09:49 PM | General
February 20, 2006
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The road, once kind to West Virginia, has turned uneven and extremely rough. The Mountaineers dropped a 60-58 decision at Syracuse Monday night before more than 25,000 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Before losing at Pitt on Feb. 9, West Virginia had a perfect 4-0 record in true road games.
 |
||
| West Virginia's Darris Nichols, right, looks to pass after taking the ball from Syracuse's Louie McCroskey during the first half of college basketball in Syracuse, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 20, 2006.
AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli |
But now, West Virginia (18-8, 9-4) has lost three straight and four of its last five; three of the four losses coming away from the WVU Coliseum. West Virginia had its chances to win a back-and-forth game against Syracuse but was unable to come up with the clutch plays it needed down the stretch.
“It was a great game and they did a great job of getting the ball inside against us,” West Virginia coach John Beilein said. “Their zone was very good against us but we played our hearts out. I can’t ask for any more.”
With the scored tied at 58 after a Kevin Pittsnogle 3-point basket with four minutes to go, West Virginia got a great look when Mike Gansey slipped free on the baseline, but his tough double-clutch lay up attempt spun off the other side of the rim.
Syracuse came down at the other end and went right inside to Terrence Roberts, who bulled his way toward the rim to give the Orange a 60-58 lead with 2:22 remaining.
Two missed jumpers by Pittsnogle and a miss on the other end by McNamara with 40 seconds left presented West Virginia with another opportunity to either tie the game with a 2 or take the lead with a 3. The Mountaineers worked the ball around the perimeter of the Syracuse 2-3 zone but had great difficulty getting a good look at the basket, instead settling for a nearly impossible 3-point try from Beilein that was off the mark.
“We were down to one timeout which was painful so I was trying to hang onto it,” Beilein said of his team’s troubles during its final two possessions. “On the first one they weren’t allowing something where we had Kevin on the perimeter and then on the last one we all knew what we were running but a few of us stood around and sort of just got confused.
“There was nothing I could do at that point: you couldn’t hear anything and the shot clock was going down and it was a tough sequence there,” Beilein said.
Following Patrick Beilein’s miss, Syracuse assumed possession of the basketball with just five seconds left and West Virginia needing to foul four times to send the Orange to the free throw line. McNamara eventually went to the line with 1.8 seconds left and missed the front end of the 1-and-1, but he collected his own rebound as the clock ran out.
“We had a few fumbled executions in the last two possessions that will bother me for a little while but we’ll learn a lot from it and hopefully it will help us when we play Louisville on Saturday,” Beilein said.
As it did a week ago at Seton Hall, the Mountaineers were playing catch up the entire game. West Virginia missed its first seven shot attempts and didn’t finally score until Pittsnogle made a lay up five minutes into the contest.
Syracuse (19-8, 7-6) led by nine, 23-14, on a Darryl Watkins lay up and had a 27-19 lead with 2:09 left before West Virginia had its best run of the game, outscoring the Orange 11-2 to take a 30-29 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Darris Nichols got the run going with a 3-point basket at the top of the key and then Nichols came up with a steal at mid court and eventually found Gansey free under the basket for an easy lay up. Pittsnogle stroked a 3 after of a Syracuse basket to pull West Virginia to within two, and Beilein finished off the run with a tough 3-point shot from the corner with two seconds left on the clock.
West Virginia’s biggest lead of the game was four, 37-33, on a Pittsnogle 3 with 17:56 left before Syracuse scored eight straight points to force Beilein to take a 30-second timeout at 15:48. The Mountaineers fought back and took the lead again at 48-47 on a Nichols floater in the lane and led 51-49 on a Beilein 3 with 7:35 remaining.
Just as Connecticut did in an 81-75 win on Saturday, Syracuse had its way close to the basket getting a combined 26 points on 12 of 15 shooting from Roberts and Watkins. Freshman Eric Devendorf led the Orange with 17 points on 7 of 13 shooting, making up for a sub-par 5-point performance from leading scorer Gerry McNamara.
West Virginia got a game-high 20 points from Pittsnogle and a season-high 18 points off the bench from Beilein on six 3s. The rest of the team came up with just 20 points on a combined 9-of-28 shooting. Overall, West Virginia made 23 of 55 for 41.8 percent and hit 12 of 33 from 3-point distance for 36.3 percent.
“To beat them here we’re going to have to have more than just Kevin and Patrick to have good shooting games against that zone,” Beilein said.
Syracuse was 25 of 54 for 46.2 percent and made 6 of 19 from 3 for 31.5 percent. The Orange shot the game’s only free throws, hitting 4 of 7. Syracuse had a 15-4 advantage in second-chance points.
“We only had eight turnovers for the whole game and I just think we’re a better team than those last two possessions,” Beilein said. “But that’s why they win here in the Carrier Dome.”
SU probably got the win it needed to get back into the NCAA tournament having played one of the country’s toughest schedules. Six of Syracuse’s eight losses have come against teams that were ranked at one time.
West Virginia, meanwhile, finally gets a five-day break before its next game at home against Louisville on Saturday. The Mountaineers have played four games in the last eight days in their most difficult stretch of the season. West Virginia managed to win just one of those four games.
“Right now we need rest and not let this loss affect us too much because it is tough to win here,” Beilein said.
West Virginia has now lost eight in a row to Syracuse and 11 of its last 12 to the Orange dating back to 1999. The Mountaineers have won only once at the Carrier Dome in 1996, a 101-79 decision.
