Orange Loses Late Lead, Falls to Badgers in OT 66-58

Story by Zach Francis

Photos by Lindsey Horsting

Syracuse, NY - After trailing for most of the first half, No. 14 Syracuse grabbed its first lead since 10-8 midway through the second half Wednesday night. The Orange held the lead which grew to as much as six, but never was quite able to put Wisconsin away and allowed the Badgers to hang around before falling 66-58 to Wisconsin in overtime at the Carrier Dome in the ACC - BIG 10 Challenge.

The loss was the first of the season for Syracuse (6-1), who was coming off of a Battle 4 Atlantis championship, won last week in the Bahamas. The Badgers (5-3) meanwhile had dropped three of their first seven games.

In overtime, it was all Wisconsin as the Badgers outscored the Orange 13-5.

"I thought we battled in the second half and did a tremendous job to get back in," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. "Our defense was good enough, I thought. But our offense just wasn't."

Offensive Woes

The Badgers dismantled the Orange on the boards, finishing with a 51-25 rebounding advantage. To go along with poor rebounding, the Orange shot just 11-20 from the free throw line. Wisconsin made the same number of free throws as Syracuse despite attempting eight fewer shots.

"We can't really shoot 55-percent from the foul line and expect to win," Boeheim said.

It was a poor shooting night all around for the Orange, who shot just 35.7-percent from the field and 29-percent from three.

"We're going to miss shots, we're going to have bad shooting nights, but we can't shoot like that," Boeheim said. "That's not going to get it done.

"We've got to make shots," said senior guard Trevor Cooney, who finished with 14 points. "Every shot matters. Every free throw matters."

Michael Gbinije, who played all 45 minutes, led all scorers with 19 points, but missed four of five shots in the extra period. Ethan Happ dominated all night for the Badgers, especially late, finishing with 18 points and 15 rebounds.

With the score tied at 53 and 38 seconds remaining in the second half, Syracuse got the ball and looked to run the shot clock down before going for a winning shot. After taking two timeouts, the Orange got into its offense with 19 seconds left - Gbinije at the top of the key. He rolled to the right wing and tried to throw it inside to Tyler Lydon, The pass went right through Lydon's hands for a turnover and the Badgers got the ball back with 10 seconds left. Vitto Brown missed a jumper and the game went to the extra period.

Depth Issues

Boeheim, who never goes deep into his bench, played only seven men, with three playing more than 40 minutes.

Gbinije played the entire game, and Cooney and Lydon received only short breaks, logging 43 and 42 minutes respectively. Big man Tyler Roberson, despite foul trouble that forced him to miss nearly all of overtime after picking up his fifth and final foul just seconds into the period, logged 37 minutes.

Bo Ryan's team wasn't much different, with just eight players seeing game action and three logging 40 minutes or more. Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig, both starters on the Badgers' two Final Four teams, finished with 15 and 12 points respectively.

Kaleb Joseph provided a spark off the bench at point guard for Syracuse, scoring six first half points. He logged 14 minutes, coming in when center DaJuan Coleman, who played only five first half minutes, went out.

"I thought Kaleb played really well for us tonight," Boeheim said. "We're going to have to play deeper when we get into conference play, and Kaleb's play will let us do that."

Momentum Shift

After trailing for the majority of the game, the Orange men came out for the second half firing on all cylinders. They weren't quite able to get past the Badgers though until about 12 minutes remained.

Cooney hit back-to-back threes that fired up the crowd. The second three, from the left wing, gave the Orange a six point lead, their largest of the game. Cooney didn't even wait to see if it went through the hoop before turning around to pump up the crowd.

From that point on, the Dome became The Loud House, and Cooney said he felt all the momentum was in the Orange's favor.

"I felt it," Cooney said. "We had it, but we let the momentum slip away. We have to be able to finish these games if we want to compete this year."



Next Up

The Orange will renew an old Big East rivalry on Saturday, facing long-time rival Georgetown at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. . Syracuse will return to the Dome next Tuesday to take on historic in-state rival Colgate. The Badgers will return home to take on Temple.

Post Game 

Boeheim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRuS6C5EL8g


Ryan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUKgHMivVwM