PHILADELPHIA – Jim Boeheim didn’t need to be prompted. No need to even ask Syracuse’s head coach the question. The reason his team lost Saturday afternoon was simple.

‘I thought the game was determined early,’ Boeheim said immediately after sitting at the podium for his postgame press conference. ‘We made too many turnovers in the first half, 13, and they are a tremendous team at converting turnovers.’

Simple, perhaps. But also true. The No. 20 Orange (18-6, 6-5 Big East) played arguably its sloppiest and worst basketball of the season in the first half and lost, 102-85, to No. 17 Villanova (19-4, 7-3) in front of a sellout crowd of 20,390 at the Wachovia Center. It was the second straight road game Syracuse allowed at least 100 points, and the most points SU had ever allowed to the Wildcats.

The first 20 minutes were nothing short of a nightmare on the offensive end for the Orange. Syracuse shot 9-of-24 (37.5 percent) from the field, compared to the Wildcats’ 19-of-36 (52.8 percent). Almost 16 minutes into the game, SU had three field goals, all by forward Rick Jackson. By the time another Orange player hit a shot, Villanova already led by 16.

At one point in the first half, Wildcats forward Dante Cunningham, who tied a career-high with 31 points, had more field goals by himself than Syracuse had as a team.

The Orange went into halftime trailing, 53-38, and Jonny Flynn, Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris – SU’s three leading scorers entering the day – were a combined 2-of-12 from the field.

‘It’s just a bad offensive stretch,’ said Flynn, who finished with a team-high 22 points. ‘You can’t put a label, but just shots weren’t falling. They were getting a lot of points off turnovers, but it was just a bad 10 minutes for us.’

Though Syracuse shot poorly, it handled the ball even worse. The Orange committed 13 first-half turnovers, including six by Devendorf and four by Flynn, which Villanova converted into 21 points. The Wildcats took 11 more shots than the Orange in the first half.

Part of Syracuse’s trouble could be attributed to Villanova’s aggressive defense. The Wildcats sent a double team to the high post whenever one of the Orange’s big men touched the ball, preventing SU from scoring inside. Arinze Onuaku, Syracuse’s strongest interior presence, recorded just four points and three rebounds as he continues to recover from the knee injury that has hampered him for the last three games.

The Wildcats’ pestering on the high post forced the Orange to rely on its outside shooting. In the first half, Syracuse shot 3-of-11 (27.3 percent) from 3-point range.

‘They were guarding the post the entire night,’ shooting guard Andy Rautins said. ‘They made it difficult. We didn’t do a great job kicking it back out to the 3-point line. They doubled everything out on the post. That made us go inside-out. We didn’t do a good job with that.’

Despite Villanova’s defense, SU also suffered from unforced turnovers. Power forward Kristof Ongenaet gave credit to the Wildcats, but said the problem ultimately lied with the Orange’s own sloppiness.

‘I think it’s also just a lot of intensity,’ he said, ‘even though there are always double teams, and there is always a danger of having those turnovers. Maybe we were a little bit insecure because we’re not used to that pressure, but the first half the handling wasn’t what it should be.’

Syracuse improved in the second half and committed just three turnovers the rest of the game. For a few minutes, it even seemed like the Orange would be able to put together a comeback. Early in the second half, Syracuse went on a quick 10-0 run and cut the deficit to 10 at the 15:43 mark.

Even in the final minutes, the Orange refused to go away. On multiple possessions late in the half, Syracuse was a bucket away from bringing the lead into single digits. With less than five minutes remaining, the Wildcats led by just 11.

But it was not enough. The first half was too much to overcome, no matter how much better the Orange played after halftime.

‘They scored 51 (sic) points,’ Boeheim said of the first half. ‘But it wasn’t really our defense as much as it was our offense was so poor in the first half.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2009 at 12:00 pm