Post by cviller on Feb 5, 2009 1:19:55 GMT -5
MetroNews Sports
The Mountaineers lost their second consecutive road game to a ranked opponent as they again could not recover from a rough first half.
Syracuse broke open a close game with a late run in the first half. The Orange pushed their lead from 24-22 to 35-24 over a 2:30 minute span.
Syracuse led 37-29 at the break. The Orange eventually pushed that lead to as many as 20 points in the 2nd half as they win 74-61 in front of over 21,000 fans at the Carrier Dome.
Johnny Flynn and Eric Devendorf each scored 22 points. Many of the Syracuse baskets were set up by penetration from Flynn the point guard. The Mountaineers were heavily outscored in the paint.
The Orange also held West Virginia to just 35% shooting from the field.
"It's hard to come in here and shoot (poorly) and win," WVU coach Bob Huggins said. "The disappointing thing for me is that we didn't get the loose balls. We were not the aggresser like we needed to be. We've got to go stick people. And stop their penetration to the goal so we can rebound"
"They've got more artillery than we have," Huggins said. "That doesn't mean we can't win, but we have to be a lot more assertive."
Da'Sean Butler led West Virginia in scoring with 23 points. Alex Ruoff was the only other WVU player in double figures as he scored 10 points.
The Mountaineers will try and get back to the .500 mark in Big East play Saturday as they host Providence. The Mountaineers are 4-5 in the league and 15-7 overall.
Saturday's game will tip off at 4 p.m.