SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -Jim Boeheim knew it was coming and repeatedly warned his 11th-ranked Orange.
Still when Monday night’s game against Cleveland State was on the line, the Orange finally ran out of time. They could only stop and watch Cedric Jackson as he sank a 60-foot desperation shot at the final buzzer to end their unbeaten run at nine games.
“I’m definitely in shock,” said center Arinze Onuaku, whose putback in the final seconds had knotted the score at 69-all. “Coach has been harping on us to play from the beginning so we don’t have to come back and this is what happened.”
Syracuse (9-1) had made a habit of having to rally to win, and it finally bit the Orange big-time in the stunning 72-69 loss.
“This is not unusual. We’ve had five games this year – this is the fifth one – where we’ve been behind,” Boeheim said. “We are just coming out in the first half, five or six games now, and being totally outplayed. We are making bad turnovers and putting ourselves in a tremendous hole.”
ngs scored 10 points off those mistakes. Most telling, perhaps, was the Orange’s rebounding performance, especially in the first half. Syracuse shot 52.2 percent but took 14 fewer shots as the Vikings dominated the offensive glass 11-1, scoring eight second-chance points.
Boeheim probably figured the Orange’s luck was about to run out before the game was five minutes old. Onuaku, who had made 17 straight shots over the previous three games to become the national leader in field-goal percentage (79.4 percent), missed his first three attempts – two layups and a short jumper – and Jonny Flynn missed another layup.
“We started out the game missing three layups, and if you do that against good teams you get them in position to think they can win,” Boeheim said. “They are going to have a chance to win and that’s what happened.”
Only the futility of Cleveland State’s J’Nathan Bullock kept the game close early. Averaging 13.5 points to lead the Vikings and a 41 percent shooter, he missed all nine of his shots in the first half, which ended in a 30-30 tie.
At least Boeheim’s message has been received with three games left before the grueling Big East portion of the schedule begins.
“We’ve got to play better. Period. Bottom line,” Boeheim said. “I don’t think we can beat a team in our league the way we’re playing right now.”
Fortunately, Syracuse gets to play again quickly, returning to action Wednesday night at home against Canisius (3-6), which is coming off a 74-46 loss at Albany.
“After a loss like this, you want to get back on the floor as soon as possible,” said Paul Harris, who had 11 points and 10 rebounds against the Vikings, his fourth double-double of the season. “It’s a good thing we play on Wednesday.”
And maybe a good thing to have finally lost.
“Coach was saying it would be OK if this happened one time, if we got beat one time and didn’t show up one night,” guard Andy Rautins said. “But I mean, we didn’t show up a bunch of nights. Luckily, we just won the games. We don’t think it is OK by any means, but maybe this will wake us up a little bit.”
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