In Jim Boeheim’s mind, Syracuse’s difficulties on the glass cannot be attributed to the absence of 7-foot center Fab Melo. It isn’t about any deficiencies down low with his big men.

Instead, the head coach feels that his guards should be held responsible for the 21-rebound edge that West Virginia had against the Orange on Saturday.

‘It’s not the center position,’ Boeheim said. ‘Everybody’s going to look at that. Fab was averaging six rebounds per game. It’s the other positions. Our guards got two rebounds tonight. In our defense, guards have to get some rebounds.’

No. 3 SU (22-1, 9-1 Big East) managed to pull out a 63-61 win over the Mountaineers (15-7, 5-4) Saturday in the Carrier Dome, but the Orange felt fortunate to come out of the game with a victory. West Virginia outrebounded Syracuse 41-20 in the game, including a 24-11 edge in the second half. And while some may believe the cause lies with the absence of Melo in the middle, the Orange agreed with their head coach that the problem stems from the guard positions.

‘When Fab’s down there, he usually controls it a little bit more than the other guys,’ junior guard Brandon Triche said. ‘… But a lot of the balls went around the foul line or under the foul line. Those are rebounds the guards can get.’

By the first media timeout at the 15:40 mark, SU had hauled in just one rebound, while the Mountaineers’ had grabbed six.

West Virginia’s aggressiveness on the boards intensified as the game went on. Near the 11-minute mark of the second half, Kevin Jones hauled in an errant Darryl Bryant 3-pointer on the right side and went up with a putback. That rolled off the rim, but Jones was there to clean up his own miss and finished with a layup.

Later in the half, the Mountaineers had one possession that lasted more than 98 seconds thanks to three offensive rebounds, though it ended with a missed jumper.

‘I think we need to talk more,’ sophomore center Baye Keita said. ‘Everybody needs to crash the boards. Other teams send all five of them every night. We just need to be smarter with that.’

The game almost went to overtime when Mountaineers forward Deniz Kilicli caught a Bryant air ball under the basket and went up for the putback with eight seconds left. Keita swatted the ball away, although replays showed the ball hit the backboard before Keita got to it and should have been ruled goaltending. Those two points would have knotted the game at 63-63.

The rebounding discrepancy throughout the game came mainly in the guard spot. SU’s trio of Dion Waiters, Scoop Jardine and Triche hauled in one rebound between the three of them, while WVU’s three guards grabbed five rebounds apiece.

‘We’re just not doing a good job on the boards,’ Boeheim said. ‘We haven’t really all year, but these last two games, Notre Dame in particularly and this game. … It’s really about our guards and forwards doing a better job rebounding the ball. That’s imperative for us.’

Triche steps up

When Syracuse was searching for offense, Brandon Triche became the answer.

Five straight points early in the second half put SU ahead 33-27, forcing WVU head coach Bob Huggins to burn a timeout. Later, with the Orange now trailing by two, Triche buried a 3 and then hit a jumper in transition, boosting SU to a 52-49 lead with 6:16 to go.

‘I thought Brandon was great,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘He made some huge plays for us, really stepped up.’

Triche came two points away from his season-high, leading Syracuse with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. The junior guard went 2-of-4 from the arc, with both baskets coming in those personal five-point spurts. He also hit the two free throws that put Syracuse ahead 63-61 with 1:28 to go, a score that held for the final 90 seconds.

With Waiters struggling for the third straight game — a 2-of-9 performance, making him 7-of-28 in the last three games — Triche took it upon himself much of the time. This was an aggressive performance from the junior, so it made sense that he remained on the court for the final minutes, as Boeheim looked to play his strongest five.

He made a key play in those final moments, contesting Darryl Bryant’s game-tying 3-point attempt.

‘It felt pretty good,’ Triche said of his whole performance. ‘It didn’t matter if I was taking shots. I just wanted to get a shot for the team.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on January 28, 2012 at 12:00 pm