Indianapolis -- A spot in the Elite 8 was on the line in Hinkle Fieldhouse late Saturday night.
Syracuse and Houston. The 11 seed vs. the 2 seed.
The Cougars looked every bit the higher seed. They choked the Orange on the perimeter and took a 30-20 lead into the locker room at halftime. Theme of the night: Syracuse could not score. From anywhere.
Final tally: Houston 62, Syracuse 46.
Here’s what happened:
Houston’s defense happened. The Cougars play tight, aggressive D and Syracuse learned the hard way that nothing would come easy.
SU managed a total of six buckets in the first half. SIX. Houston dominated that half defensively but SU outscored UH 7-1 at the free-throw line to make it kinda, sorta close at the break.
Syracuse was 6-of-24 overall in that first half and 1-of-10 from the 3-point line. The only Orange player that made a 3 was Quincy Guerrier, and that came early in the game.
As solid as the defense was, Syracuse simply could not score. It tried to drive the ball and either score at the rim or draw fouls. It tried to shoot jump shots. Nothing went in.
All the driving meant a lot of standing and watching for everybody else except the ballhandler. At times, the Orange got to the rim but didn’t finish or had a shot altered or blocked. Houston was a tough, physical, annoying presence on the defensive end. But SU needed to be stronger with the ball and more assertive on its offensive end.
And the Orange, for the most part, was limited to a single shot.
The 3-pointer situation for Syracuse was particularly dire. The Orange had been making 3s at a brisk clip in the postseason. But not Saturday night here. SU took 23 shots from the 3-point line and made five of them. That’s 22 percent.
Buddy Boeheim struggled to get any clean looks in the first half. Houston covered him with its 6-foot-5 stopper Dejon Jarreau and Boeheim could not get free from Jarreau’s sticky D.
Boeheim was 1-of-7 overall and 0-for-4 in that first half. He had maybe one completely open opportunity from the 3-point line, but every other shot was closely contested.
And Jarreau was huge for Houston in that half. He took four shots and missed all of them. But he also had eight rebounds, six assists and just smothered Buddy Boeheim.
Boeheim would finish the game with 12 points, but he was 3-for-13 overall and 1-for-9 from the 3-point line. Jarreau was just too good, too on-the-ball tough defending him.
Jesse Edwards provided some nice minutes for Syracuse in the first half. Edwards, with his 7-foot height and reach, made it difficult for the Cougars to escape corner traps or get anything close to the basket.
The Orange trailed 15-5 when Edwards entered the game. Soon enough, SU tied it at 20. Edwards and Kadary Richmond were hugely responsible for that score alteration. Of all the Orange players who got into the game in the first half, Edwards was plus-4 -- only he and Alan Griffin (plus-1) were in the plus category.
Edwards, too, entered the game relatively early in the second half. His length was again disruptive to a Houston team that is super tough but not all that tall. And he was influential in keeping Syracuse close at all. When he wasn’t walling up or rebounding, he was drawing Houston fouls.
It’s not as if Houston percolated on offense. The Cougars, too, struggled to score. They just didn’t struggle as much as Syracuse.
The zone, for the most part, did its part. Houston shot 38 percent overall and 27 percent from the 3-point line.
This and that: Tables turned for good for Syracuse with about four minutes left in the game. Quincy Guerrier appeared to have a layup on a scrambled transition play, but he had the ball stolen and then Joe Girard fouled Justin Gorham, who was taking a jump shot near the free-throw line. The ball went down and Gorham got a free throw. During that sequence, SU could have trimmed the lead to six; instead it trailed by 11. ... Before the game began, a “Let’s Go O-range” cheer broke out in Hinkle. The crowd seemed to slightly favor Syracuse, but there was adequate Houston representation, too. The Houston people brought flags and large banners. ... Dino Babers was among the Syracuse fans at Hinkle.
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