A night after scoring 53 points in just one half, the Syracuse men’s basketball team struggled to equal that number in an entire game against Princeton.

The Tigers slowed the tempo, yet were unable to steal a win.

Syracuse won its Coaches vs. Cancer regional final, 56-45, before 20,176 at the Carrier Dome. The No. 6 Orange advanced to face No. 12 Mississippi State in the semifinals of the tournament Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York City at 9 p.m.

Regional most valuable player Hakim Warrick led the Orange with 20 points and six rebounds while playing all 40 minutes. Sophomore Demetris Nichols chipped in with 14 points on 3-for-6 shooting from the 3-point range.

Senior guard Will Venable led Princeton with 17 points and six rebounds.

‘I told the players, when you play Princeton, you look at their scores over the years, it’s always going to be a battle,’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘It’s always going to be a tough team.’

Syracuse (2-0) ran up 25 fast-break points in its 104-54 win over Northern Colorado on Thursday night to begin the tournament. But against Princeton, the Orange knew that would change and managed only four points on fast-break opportunities.

Instead, Syracuse slowed the tempo and played a more Princeton-like game. ‘We’re on a fast break, and it was three on five in their favor,’ SU guard Gerry McNamara said. ‘You can’t really do anything. It was a half-court game. It was probably boring to watch. It was tough to play in.’

The Tigers (1-1) worked the shot clock on nearly every possession but didn’t generate quality shots on every possession. They were called for shot-clock violations twice in the first nine minutes of the game, and rushed even more shots as the clock expired. Princeton shot just 39 percent.

Syracuse employed a man-to-man defense to begin the game, hoping to rein the Tigers’ 3-point shooting prowess.

But it was Princeton’s numerous cuts and screens that thrashed the Syracuse defense, giving the Tigers an early 14-5 lead with 13:08 to play in the first half. That’s when the Orange switched to zone, substituting the quick Terrence Roberts and Louie McCroskey for Craig Forth and Josh Pace.

‘When you get behind 14-5 to Princeton,’ Boeheim said, ‘it means you’re going to be lucky to get back into the game or go to the wire.’

With SU playing zone, Princeton’s zone offense looked stagnant and, as a result, the typical Princeton back screens were less frequent. The Tigers struggled to find open looks outside while rarely moving the ball down low.

‘It was definitely tough,’ Venable said. ‘They couldn’t guard us man-to-man. It took us a while to get into our zone offense.’

More importantly, Syracuse extended the zone outward, holding Princeton to 5-for-20 shooting from 3-point range. The Tigers made just one 3-pointer in the second half, shooting a paltry 10 percent.

‘The zone definitely saved us,’ Warrick said. ‘Coach (Boeheim) told us if we had played man, we would have lost by 20.’

Princeton trailed by as many as 10 points early in the second half, but fought back to tie the game with 8:41 left in the game.

SU held Princeton to just five points in the final 8:41, and Warrick finished the Tigers with a slam dunk to put Syracuse up by eight with 1:35 to play. Princeton didn’t score a basket in the final 8:42.

‘Coach said it was going to be a completely different game,’ Roberts said. ‘We knew we weren’t going to come out and score 100 points. Tonight was a mental game. And I knew coming in I’d be mentally tired after this game.’

Published on November 14, 2004 at 12:00 pm