Immediately after Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim delivered a passionate 13-minute press conference, he made his way to the corner of the locker room. After his team’s much-needed win over West Virginia, Boeheim scampered toward the game’s most valuable players.

Boeheim stood side-by-side with Brandon Triche and Kris Joseph, who combined to score 36 points to will the Orange to a 62-53 victory.

Boeheim wasn’t there to congratulate the players, though. Instead, he critiqued Joseph’s performance. Despite a strong and energetic game from the junior forward, the head coach still felt something was lacking. Something that could take the Orange to the next level.

‘The last game Brandon found it, and tonight it continued along that way,’ Boeheim said in an interview with The Daily Orange on Feb. 14. ‘Kris is a key offensive guy for us. I don’t think he is playing to his potential yet. I think he is still — I don’t know what it is. I am not sure what it is. He is close. But he needs to play better for us.’

Still, Joseph played well enough to help Triche carry the Orange to a win in the Carrier Dome as SU avoided losing four consecutive home games for the first time since 1962. Triche set the tone early on the offensive end and finished with 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Joseph added 16 points. The duo led a balanced scoring effort for Syracuse in a hard-fought conference victory.

After West Virginia’s initial possession to open the game, Triche immediately attacked the Mountaineers defense. The sophomore guard darted down the court following a Kevin Jones miss and nailed a 3-pointer to get SU on the board.

In just 21 seconds Triche was already fulfilling a role that Boeheim had waited to see all season long. The head coach wanted Triche to come out aggressive from the opening tip, looking to score for the Orange.

‘Being comfortable out there, that got me in a rhythm,’ Triche said. ‘My coaches have been telling me to start early, give us a lift.’

But the Mountaineers responded.

WVU guard Casey Mitchell came off the bench to provide a scoring punch that countered Triche’s contributions. Mitchell led West Virginia from beyond the arc as the team shot an atypical 7-of-13 from deep. The hot-shooting performance helped the Mountaineers take a 30-26 lead into halftime.

Although Mitchell stayed hot in the second half, collecting 23 points on the game, the rest of the West Virginia squad cooled off. Then Joseph took over.

The Syracuse forward scored nine second-half points to help the Orange recapture the lead. But he failed to contain Mitchell, who had become the Mountaineers’ lone scoring threat, on two separate occasions.

And Boeheim let him hear it.

‘They were waiting the whole shot clock so (Mitchell) could find a place,’ Boeheim said. ‘Sometimes he moves around. Kris forgot and missed him in the corner.’

But down the stretch, Triche made big plays to give SU the lead, and after Joseph’s defensive lapses, he clamped down and made the game’s defining play.

Joseph put the stamp on the game with an emphatic dunk that gave the Orange a 61-52 lead with 3:35 remaining. And all doubts that emerged throughout the game and the four-game losing streak were put to rest.

Said Joseph: ‘(It was) adrenaline. It was a big play at that time.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on January 26, 2012 at 12:00 pm