No. 5 Syracuse nearly blows 10-point late lead but beats No. 10 West Virginia 72-71

No. 5 Syracuse survives No. 10 West Virginia 72-71

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Brandon Triche scored 16 points and No. 5 Syracuse nearly blew a 10-point lead in the final minute before outlasting No. 10 West Virginia 72-71 on Saturday.

Kris Joseph and Wes Johnson added 13 points apiece for Syracuse (17-1, 4-1 Big East), while Andy Rautins had 12.

Syracuse led 65-55 with 1:18 remaining after a free throw by Johnson, but West Virginia (13-3, 4-2) came storming back.

Darryl Bryant led West Virginia with 18 points and he hit two 3-pointers in the final 33 seconds, including one with 3 seconds left for the final margin.

Joseph missed two free throws with 2.5 seconds left. West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler got the rebound but couldn’t get off a quality shot as time ran out.

Freshman Dalton Pepper added a career-high 15 points for West Virginia, while Butler scored 13 and Kevin Jones had 11.

Syracuse beat West Virginia for the 11th time in the last 12 meetings. It was the first matchup between top 10 teams in Morgantown since 1960, when the third-ranked Mountaineers beat No. 9 Villanova in Jerry West’s senior year.

Syracuse shot 58 percent from the field (26 of 45) but matched its lowest point total of the season.

Syracuse went ahead to stay, 43-32, with 12 minutes left in the game on a rebound basket by Arinze Onuaku, and the Orange used runs of 9-0 and 7-0 to keep West Virginia at bay.

Triche hit consecutive baskets to give the Orange their largest lead, 61-51, with 2:44 left. But Syracuse didn’t score another basket after Joseph’s layup and free throw put the Orange ahead 64-55 with 1:48 remaining.

West Virginia outscored Syracuse 16-7 over the final 1:18. Bryant and Butler hit consecutive 3-pointers and Bryant made two free throws to cut the deficit to 71-65 with 7 seconds left.

But Syracuse escaped by going 4 of 8 from the free-throw line over the final 23 seconds.

West Virginia was outscored from the line for the fifth straight game and was held to 39 percent shooting (24 of 61) overall.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim had criticized his big players after a blowout win at Rutgers on Wednesday for allowing opposing guards to make layups, but that was a rare sight for West Virginia.

West Virginia started slowly for the third time in four games. The Mountaineers trailed Notre Dame 25-4 last week and missed 15 of their first 19 shots against Syracuse, which led for most of the first half. West Virginia’s only way to penetrate the 2-3 zone was taking an outside shot and hoping to get the rebound.

Syracuse committed four first-half offensive fouls and 13 turnovers, many in the game’s opening minutes.

Bryant’s 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer drew the Mountaineers within 26-25.