Jimmy V Classic: Orange Rallies, But Cowboys Stay Perfect

This early portion of the season is for learning lessons, and perhaps Syracuse finally got the message. The Orange players need to stop digging such gaping holes for themselves.

Oklahoma State’s Mario Boggan looking for an opening against Terrence Roberts, left, and Darryl Watkins at the Jimmy V Classic.

New York Times sports reporter Pete Thamel answers readers questions about the new college basketball season.

After falling behind by 23 points against Wichita State only to lose by 3 over the weekend, No. 21 Syracuse nearly erased a 13-point deficit against No. 22 Oklahoma State last night in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.

But again, Syracuse fell short. Winless in two tries against ranked teams after opening the season with seven wins against weaker opponents, the Orange lost to the Cowboys, 72-68.

In the second half of last nights doubleheader, No. 14 Arizona defeated Louisville, 72-65.

Right now, were making way too many mistakes on offense, Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. Thats two games in a row that we werent cohesive on the offensive end. Thats two games in a row that we had a great effort and came back from 10, 11, 12 down versus two good teams. Thats the positive. But we had too many bad turnovers. We have to get better there.

Oklahoma State (10-0) appeared to have the opener all but won after Mario Boggan made a driving layup with 3 minutes 45 seconds remaining to extend the Cowboys lead to 67-54. But Syracuse (7-2), with the help of some poor foul shooting by Oklahoma State, responded with a furious rally. When Paul Harris made a driving layup for Syracuse with 49 seconds left, the Oklahoma State lead was down to 67-66.

JamesOn Curry responded with the biggest shot of the game, a 3-pointer that gave Oklahoma State some breathing room.

It was a tight situation and we were only up by 1, Oklahoma State Coach Sean Sutton said. JamesOn made a big shot for us.

Sutton is in his first year as Oklahoma States coach after replacing his father, Eddie. After a rare poor season a year ago, the Cowboys have rebounded and are off to a quick start. But last nights game was their first against a ranked opponent and was considered an important test.

This was a great win for our team, Sean Sutton said. That was a good team that we were playing out there. It was our first time away from home and I was anxious to see how competitive we would be. Except for the turnovers, we played extremely well for the first 35 minutes. In the last five minutes, we made some mental breakdowns and got ourselves in a tight situation.

Both teams were sloppy with the ball. Syracuse committed 23 turnovers, one more than Oklahoma State.

We made some costly turnovers, and weve got to learn from that, Oklahoma States Marcus Dove said. Well take this back to the practice court. We shouldve won by 15 or more, but we were careless. Im glad we won it.

A back-and-forth first half ended with Oklahoma State holding a 39-34 lead. Boggan did most of the damage for the Cowboys, scoring 15 points in the half.

Boggan led Oklahoma State with 21 points and Curry had 20. Demetris Nichols led Syracuse with 26 points. Terrence Roberts had 14 points for the Orange, but he also had 7 turnovers.

Harris, a heralded freshman, had 11 points and 7 turnovers for the Orange — not good enough to earn praise from his coach.

He has a long way to go, Boeheim said. I laugh when people say hes our best player. Hes not good enough to start for us, and thats a fact.

Arizona led the second game by 41-26 with 5:44 remaining in the first half, but Louisville launched a comeback and took a 50-49 lead with 13:18 to play. The Wildcats regained control in the final 10 minutes and won their sixth in a row. They opened the season with a loss to Virginia.

Ivan Radenovic led Arizona (6-1) with 22 points and 13 rebounds, and Chase Budinger and Jawann McClellan each had 17 for the Wildcats. Louisville (2-2) was led by Juan Palacios, who had 15 points.

Derrick Caracter of Fanwood, N.J., made his debut for Louisville after serving a three-game N.C.A.A. suspension for accepting an improper loan from a friend. He had 6 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out.

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