NEW YORK — Despite a torrid shooting performance by Cincinnati from beyond the arc, Syracuse still had a chance to complete its comeback. In fact, the Orange had multiple chances to do so throughout the second half.

But the plays SU has made throughout the year that have allowed the team to survive multiple close games evaded the Orange Friday night.

‘Every game that we’ve been in that situation, we’ve been able to make plays,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘And tonight we had somewhat easier plays, and we just didn’t make them.’

No. 2 Syracuse (31-2) repeatedly made the plays to cut Cincinnati’s various leads down to one possession but couldn’t come up with the play to push it in front, ultimately falling to the Bearcats 71-68 in the Big East tournament semifinals at Madison Square Garden. A sellout crowd of 20,057 mostly Orange fans watched as Cincinnati (24-9) exploded out of the gates to build a 17-point lead thanks to an 8-of-10 start from beyond the arc.

Led by Dion Waiters’ 28 points and 7-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc, SU mounted multiple comebacks throughout the second half. But the Orange could never hit the shot to even the game or take the lead and suffered its second loss of the year.

‘We hate losing at the end of the day,’ Waiters said. ‘Our mindset coming into this tournament was just to win and continue to get better as a team. Nobody likes to lose.’

Just like in the first matchup between these two teams, Cincinnati started the game on fire from 3-point range.

Sean Kilpatrick opened the floodgates with a triple from the left wing two minutes in, and would go on to hit his first four 3s, including a bank shot from the right side. Junior Cashmere Wright joined Kilpatrick’s barrage, going 3-of-5 from deep to start the game as the Bearcats took a 34-17 lead with 5:45 left.

Most of the 3s came from NBA range as Syracuse’s 2-3 zone failed to extend out on UC’s shooters.

‘There’s certain adjustments you can make as a team,’ senior Kris Joseph said. ‘We just didn’t make them quick enough, soon enough. … It seemed like everything was going in for a while but we needed to make some adjustments, and we didn’t make them.’

The 3s finally stopped falling for the Bearcats late in the first half and despite 31 percent shooting from the field, SU managed to go into halftime down by just 12.

The teams went back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the second half before Syracuse put a dent in Cincinnati’s halftime lead. Waiters found Brandon Triche with a crosscourt pass and the junior knocked down a 3-pointer to make the score 51-44.

The Orange went to a full-court press off the make, and C.J. Fair poked the ball away from Wright, eventually setting up Waiters at the charity stripe. The sophomore hit one of the free throws before Syracuse came up with a stop on Cincinnati’s next possession. Waiters then shook Dion Dixon with a behind-the-back dribble that made the Bearcats guard fall over and drained an open 3-pointer to cut the lead to 53-48.

‘Dion Waiters put on an unbelievable show in the second half,’ Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin said. ‘He made some big-time shots to get them back in the game.’

The Bearcats built the lead back up to eight three minutes later as SU committed two turnovers and missed an open look from deep. Once again, though, the Orange rallied, this time cutting the lead to just three points when Fab Melo slammed home a rebound on a fast break.

But Cincinnati center Yancy Gates didn’t even cross half court on the possession and got an uncontested dunk just six seconds later. Joseph coughed up the ball on Syracuse’s next possession, and Melo was called for goaltending on a Dixon layup to push the lead back to seven.

SU took two 3s on its next possession but couldn’t hit before Kilpatrick delivered the dagger. Cincinnati had gone ice cold from deep, hitting just one 3-pointer in a span of almost 23 minutes. But after a timeout, Kilpatrick planted himself in the left corner of the court and waited for his opportunity.

‘Cashmere (Wright) just told me to stay in the corner and then Coach was telling me to go to the corner because Kris Joseph, he was going to come up and play Cash because Cash was hot as well throughout the game,’ Kilpatrick said. ‘Once he played Cash, I was just wide open.’

Kilpatrick buried the open 3 to put Cincinnati up 10 with 1:47 left. Syracuse again made a furious rally to cut that lead to 71-68, knocking down three 3s in the final 36 seconds.

But Waiters couldn’t get off a final half-court heave before the buzzer sounded and the Bearcats pulled off the upset.

‘Every other game we’ve played has been very, very close, and we’ve made plays,’ Boeheim said. ‘And tonight, we just couldn’t make a key play.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on March 9, 2012 at 12:00 pm