Syracuse had just held West Virginia to 61 points, the second lowest of any conference foe this season. In the locker room after the game, defense was obviously on the minds of the Orange. Except it involved how to stop Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar LeBron James, rather than the Mountaineers’ leading scorer Da’Sean Butler.

Players huddled around the flat screens hanging in the locker room, watching the New York Knicks try to prevent James from scoring the same amount of points by himself Syracuse had just surrendered to an entire team.

‘That’s good ‘D’, Will,’ Syracuse guard Eric Devendorf shouted at the television in encouragement of his friend on the Knicks, Wilson Chandler, who was guarding James at the time.

The No. 20 Orange didn’t have to contend with the likes of LeBron James, but SU did have to contain both Butler and Alex Ruoff, both of whom average more than 16 points per game. SU’s defensive efforts against the duo propelled the Orange to a 74-61 victory over West Virginia Wednesday night at the Carrier Dome

‘Basically, we found Ruoff and Butler,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘We did not let those two guys get going, and that was really the difference in the ball game.’

The West Virginia duo managed to combine for 33 of its team’s 61 points, but Ruoff wasn’t efficient, and most of Butler’s points in the second half came when the Mountaineers were down double figures.

Last season, Ruoff put up a game-high 23 points against the Orange by shooting 7-11 from 3-point range. This season, Ruoff, who averages 16.2 points per game, was held to 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Most of his struggles came from beyond the arc, where he shot 2-of-10.

‘Stop the 3-pointer, Ruoff, that was the most important thing and I think we did a good job of that,’ SU forward Kristof Ongenaet said. ‘…I think overall we just did a better job of focusing on who’s dangerous on offense and get stops when we have to stop them.’

As for Butler, one of only four players averaging at least 20 points per game in the conference, he surpassed his average with 23 points. But Butler’s game-high in points came on a game-high 21 shots. Eighteen of his 23 points came in the second half, when the game seemed out of hand with Syracuse leading by double digits for all but about two minutes.

Syracuse also crippled Butler’s scoring ability from beyond the arc. Only nine of his 23 points came from deep. In Big East play, the 6-foot-7 forward is second in the conference in 3-point shooting at 52 percent. The Orange held Butler to 3-of-9 shooting from long-range Wednesday night.

‘We just had to get our swagger back out there,’ said Devendorf, who finished with three steals. ‘And I think we got it back tonight. We were definitely a little bit more energetic on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the first half. In the second half they came out and made shots, but that’s going to happen in every game.’

Even as Butler began to develop somewhat of a rhythm, the Orange stopped the Mountaineers’ primary offensive weapon when it needed to most. Butler’s last bucket came with 5:42 remaining in the game, and it cut the SU lead to 10. Butler misfired the rest of the game, missing two 3’s and two free-throw attempts.

The Orange only allowed two field goals after Butler’s bucket with almost six minutes to go, and one came in the form of a meaningless dunk with two seconds remaining.

Because the Orange managed to contain Ruoff and Butler, West Virginia struggled offensively as a whole. The Mountaineers shot 36 percent from the field and 26 percent from deep. This comes as the Orange had been struggling as of late on defense. Over the last five games, SU allowed opponents to shoot 47 percent from the field and 38 percent from deep.

But on a night that some players called a must-win game, the Orange came up with one of its best defensive showings of the year.

‘The difference in the game was our defense,’ Boeheim said. ‘We found their shooters. We were just much better than we’ve been all year, defensively finding shooters and still rebounding the basketball.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on February 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm