Mountaineers Climb Over 'Cuse

Syracuse's full-court press took a bigger toll on the Orangemen.

Calvin Bowman scored 20 points and West Virginia survived a second-half scare for an 87-76 victory over No. 10 Syracuse on Saturday.

Josh Yeager scored eight of his 15 points in the final three minutes to help West Virginia (15-8, 6-6 Big East) ward off a comeback by Syracuse, which nearly overcame a 15-point deficit but wore down from its own relentless pursuit.

"We got tired. You can only press for so long," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. "We were doing really well, but it takes too much to do that for that long."

February hasn't been kind to the Orangemen (19-6, 7-5), who are 2-3 and have failed to shoot 50 percent from the floor in any of those games. Syracuse went 36.5 percent Saturday, including 5-of-30 3-pointers.

Syracuse now must wait to get Boeheim his 23nd 20-win season and fourth in a row.

"We have 19 wins and are in good position. I'm not sure a lot of people expected us to be here."

Few people probably expected the Mountaineers to keep up with Syracuse, but West Virginia controlled the inside game throughout and never trailed in the second half.

They outrebounded the Orangemen 54-31, with Chris Moss getting 14 and Bowman 12.

"Me and Chris both wanted the ball," Bowman said. "We tried to mix it up and use our quickness to get the ball. It doesn't matter the height when you're rebounding. It matters how bad you want the ball."

Bowman's rebound basket started a 7-0 run that gave West Virginia it biggest lead, 49-34, with 13:33 remaining.

Then, panic set in. The Mountaineers began taking low-percentage shots and committed a wave of turnovers and fouls as Syracuse tightened its defense.

"I was not pleased with the way we handled that," said West Virginia coach Gale Catlett. "The wrong guy took the ball out of bounds three to four times. We threw it in to the wrong people three or four times. But it was all in an effort to win the game."

Initially, Syracuse couldn't capitalize, making just 5-of-10 free throws in a two-minute span.

Then, West Virginia's Brooks Berry was called for an intentional foul on DeShaun Williams, who hit two free throws and a bank shot 21 seconds apart to start a 10-1 run that cut the deficit to 61-55 with 6:22 remaining.

After Berry hit a 3-pointer to push the lead back to nine, Kueth Duany scored four unanswered points and Williams hit an inside basket to make it 68-65 with 3:54 left.

"I looked up and saw that we were down by three and I thought a miracle had happened," Boeheim said. "We had no right to be that close."

But Syracuse got no closer. West Virginia finally figured out the Orangemen's press by lobbing the ball over it. Yeager get open for several easy baskets in the final two minutes.

"There's a crack in everything and today we figured it out," said West Virginia's Jay Hewitt.

Lionel Armstead, who missed the last two games with a sprained ankle, added 15 points and Tim Lyles had 14 for the Mountaineers.

Williams finished with 21 points. Damone Brown scored 18 despite being in foul trouble most of the game. Allen Griffin added 13 points. Leading scorer Preston Shumpert was held to nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.

"They got one or two of our key players out of the game and that knocked us out of our rhythm," Williams said. "Damone really couldn't get involved until the end. That's how it goes sometimes."

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