Syracuse topples W. Va. for title

It was the first conference title since 1992 for the Orangemen.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hakim Warrick had 20 points and 13 rebounds -- his third double-double in three games -- and No. 16 Syracuse won the Big East tournament for the first time since 1992 with a 68-59 victory over West Virginia on Saturday night.
The third-seeded Orange (27-6) won their fourth Big East tournament title in their 12th championship game appearance.
Warrick, the conference player of the year, was selected the tournament MVP. The only other player to have three double-doubles in one tournament was Craig Smith of Boston College last year.
Loss ends run
The loss at Madison Square Garden ended a history-making run for West Virginia (21-10), the first No. 8 seed to ever reach the championship game. No team had ever won four games to take the title and the Mountaineers fell one game short in winning their first conference championship since winning the Atlantic 10 in 1984.
West Virginia had never gotten past the quarterfinal round before this season.
Syracuse again used its 2-3 zone defense and Warrick's inside presence to take a big lead. The Orange dominated second-seeded Connecticut in the semifinals that way but just like that game they also let a big lead slip away.
Syracuse led Connecticut by 21 points with 12:47 to play and wound up winning 67-63. The Orange opened the second half with a 10-2 run to take a 51-33 lead over the Mountaineers with 16:12 left.
Mountaineers close gap
But West Virginia finally started to hit 3-pointers -- the Mountaineers were 35-for-74 in the first three games -- and the lead shrunk to 55-50 with 8:20 to play.
Josh Pace tipped in a miss by Warrick with 4:57 left to make it 59-50 -- the first Syracuse points not scored by Warrick in 12 minutes -- and West Virginia didn't get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Gerry McNamara added 16 points and Pace had 13 for the Orange, whose other titles came in 1981 and 1988. During their Big East title drought, the Orange did win the school's first national championship in 2003.
Tyrone Sally had 13 points for the Mountaineers, while Mike Gansey, who made two free throws with 0.2 seconds left to beat Villanova in the semifinals, and Joe Herber each added 11 points.
Below shooting average
Syracuse entered the game second in the conference in field goal percentage defense at 39.1 percent and the Orange held West Virginia to 35.8-percent shooting, including 9-for-29 from 3-point range.
The Orange, who won the only other meeting between the teams this season, finished with a 41-23 rebound advantage, a statistic West Virginia was next-to-last in in the 12-team conference.
The title was Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim's fourth, two behind Connecticut's Jim Calhoun and Georgetown's John Thompson.
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