Dogs Dazed
Will the Orange win the Coaches Vs. Cancer Tournament? Talk about it on The Daily Orange Basketball Forum
NEW YORK CITY- The two halves couldn’t have started any more differently.
In the first, the Syracuse men’s basketball team looked ugly. Ugly shooting. Ugly rebounding. Ugly just trying to hold on to the ball.
‘As bad as we played,’ guard Louie McCroskey said, ‘any other team would have been blowing us out.’
But while the first half looked so disgusting, the second half could have been described as brilliant.
A quick 9-0 run to start the half gave the Orange momentum.
The stunning change led Syracuse to defeat No. 12 Mississippi State, 71-58, on Thursday night before 5,009 in the second semifinal of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in Madison Square Garden.
No. 5 Syracuse will play No. 24 Memphis (3-0) tonight at approximately 9 o’clock. Memphis defeated St. Mary’s of California, 81-66, in the first semifinal of the night.
‘In the first half, we didn’t get anything done on offense,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We had no offensive rhythm. We took poor and quick shots.’
SU senior forward Hakim Warrick, who struggled with just four points in the first half, epitomized how Syracuse went from struggling to a 25-25 halftime tie to running away with the game.
Shane Power led Mississippi State with 18 points, while Lawrence Roberts struggled in his first game of the year after serving a one-game suspension and then suffering a broken nose.
The matchup between Roberts and Warrick, two first team preseason All-American selections, never materialized into the duel that was originally expected. Roberts, wearing a facemask because of his broken nose, wasn’t at full strength.
Both players struggled in the first half, and it wasn’t until seven minutes were left in the half that either player graced the scorebook.
‘We did a really good job going in there and battling back and trying to keep my composure,’ Warrick said about the second half. ‘It was a little frustrating, not as physical as they were playing, but when we tried to play physical with them, we got some calls (against us).
‘It was tough just having a lot of bodies down there banging.’
Syracuse pushed the ball down to Warrick more in the second half. After battling the typical defensive onslaught in the first half, Warrick stepped back slightly and started hitting some mid-range jumpers to keep Mississippi State off balance.
‘He has improved his shooting,’ Boeheim said. ‘That is the one thing he has done that helps his game. He has worked hard over the summer. He works hard in practice on those 15-footers. When he was a freshman, we didn’t let him take those.’
Warrick even stunned the crowd with a ball fake, palming the basketball with one hand while rotating it to confuse a Mississippi State defender. He pulled back and then made a shot.
Warrick scored 12 of Syracuse’s first 25 second-half points. Mix in a Demetris Nichols 3-pointer and a resurgent Forth, who took pressure off Warrick in the middle by making a few baskets, and the Orange offense was back in gear.
The numbers don’t lie.
Syracuse shot 29.4 percent in the first half from the floor, including 1-for-8 from 3-point range (12.5 percent).
In the second, the Orange shot 67.7 percent and connected on half of its 3-pointers, going 3-for-6.
Gerry McNamara, who, like the rest of Syracuse, struggled throughout the first half, regained his shot in the second. McNamara missed four 3s in the first, but hit 2 of 4 in the second half.
When Syracuse struggled in the first half, Boeheim substituted in Josh Wright, McCroskey, Terrence Roberts and Darryl Watkins.
But in the second, with Syracuse regaining its offensive form, Boeheim stuck with his starters.
After Syracuse struggled to score 25 points in the first half, the Orange matched that total just nine minutes into the second, replacing the ugliness with just solid play.
‘In the second half, we started to get back into what we wanted to do,’ Boeheim said. ‘We executed as well as we can offensively in the second half. … We got better movement and shot selection.’
Will the Orange win the Coaches Vs. Cancer Tournament? Talk about it on The Daily Orange Basketball Forum
Published on November 20, 2004 at 12:00 pm
