Hurricanes Fall Short To Syracuse, 54-49
Jan 26, 2003
By STEVEN WINE
AP Sports Writer
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) – Syracuse survived some woeful shooting Sundaybecause Miami was even worse.
The Orangemen shot 37 percent Sunday but they shut out the Hurricanes overthe final 8:38 and scored the game’s final nine points to win 54-49.
The Hurricanes missed their final 15 shots and failed to score on their last14 possessions against Syracuse’s zone defense.
“I would have bet my family that we wouldn’t get shut out the last eightminutes,” Miami coach Perry Clark said. “They did a good job on our shooters.We did a poor job recognizing what was open.”
Hakim Warrick led the Orangemen with 18 points, including a rebound dunkthat gave them their first lead of the second half, 50-49 with 6:05 left.Syracuse won despite scoring just four points the rest of the way, all on freethrows.
With the victory, Syracuse (13-2, 4-1 Big East) will likely rejoin the Top25 this week. The Orangemen have won 12 of their past 13 games.
The Hurricanes (8-8, 1-4) lost for the first time in eight home games thisseason, and for the first time in three games at their new Convocation Center.Syracuse hasn’t lost at Miami since Dec. 7, 1996.
Darius Rice, who scored 43 points Monday to help Miami beat Connecticut, washeld to 13 before fouling out with six seconds left. He shot 5-for-16 andmissed all six attempts from 3-point range.
“I watched the UConn game, and we weren’t going to let him get those kindof shots,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “We did a good job of not lettinghim get any kind of rhythm.”
The Hurricanes shot 32 percent and took only 10 free throws, making six.
“We didn’t get the ball inside into the gaps,” guard Robert Hite said.”It was there. We just didn’t take advantage of it.”
Kueth Duany scored 17 points for the Orangemen, who won despite a season-lowpoint total nearly 30 below their average.
“This is really the first game we couldn’t get shots to go down,” Boeheimsaid.
Freshman Gerry McNamara went 1-for-10 – all 3-point tries – and his threepoints were 13 below his average. Classmate Carmelo Anthony went 4-for-15 andscored just 12 points, 10 below his norm, but had 14 rebounds.
“To have those two guys go 5-for-25 and come out with a win is a minormiracle,” Boeheim said.
On one possession the Orangemen missed five shots but snared every reboundbefore Duany scored on a follow.
James Jones and Rafael Berumen each made two baskets as Miami scored 12consecutive points to lead 25-20. A dunk by Hite on an alley-oop pass from Riceput the Hurricanes ahead 29-26, and it was 30-25 at halftime.
“Miami is used to guys not making shots,” Boeheim said. “We’re not, andwe didn’t handle it very well in the first half.”
Jones scored with 8:38 left to put the Hurricanes up 49-45, but they didn’tscore again. Jones finished with 11 points, and Hite had 10.
