Editor’s Note: The article below is a republished story from The Daily Orange’s coverage of the Syracuse and Mississippi State national semifinal match on March 30, 1996. Twenty years later the Orange gets set to face off in another Final Four matchup against North Carolina on Saturday in Houston.

EAST RUTHERFORD N.J. – They were underdogs despite being the higher-seeded team, but that didn’t matter.

They’d been there before.

The critics have been abundant on the Orangemen’s road to the Final Four, yet they keep winning.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs have been turned into unwilling converts after Syracuse ended their season 77-69 in the national semifinals in the Meadowlands.

“I think it was a situation a situation where two teams played extremely hard,” MSU head coach Richard Williams said. “I think the credit belongs to Syracuse.”

The teams struggled to a 36-36 deadlock at halftime with totally different strategies.

The Bulldogs used torrid outside shooting in the first half to lead by as much as eight points, while the Orangemen pounded the ball into the post despite a distinct size disadvantage at center.

The Bulldogs hit 6 of 11 from 3-point range, helping them to shoot 64 percent from the field.

“We usually start well early,” Bulldog forward Dontae’ Joes said. “Our shots were falling at the time.”

Syracuse center Otis Hill, who stands just 6-foot-8, took it upon his shoulders to counter the Bulldog long-range arsenal in the first half.

The junior was equal to the task in front of him, as 6-foot-11 Erick Dampier and his tremendous shot-blocking ability awaited.

Instead of fading away and worrying about getting his shot blocked, Hill, who scored 15 first-half points, realized that attacking Dampier was the only way to score.

“John (Wallace) and the coaches talked to me and said, ‘Go right at them; don’t change anything you’ve been doing all year, just go right by them to the basket,’” Hill said. “And luckily all the shots were falling.”

Dampier said, “He got a couple of shots in the lane. He got great post position, and he knocked down the big shots.”

The complexion of the second half was totally different than that of the first, as the Bulldogs cooled off from outside and Hill began seeing double teams.
Hill didn’t score in the second half, and the Bulldogs hit just 35 percent from the floor.

The difference was that Syracuse was able to find another offensive weapon was able to find another offensive weapon while Mississippi State couldn’t find an inside game.

Todd Burgan was the biggest beneficiary of the attention on Hill. Burgan scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. With 12:36 reamining, Burgan hit a turnaround jumper in the lane to tie the score at 44-44, starting an 8-0 run by the Orangemen.

“Todd had an outstanding game,” SU backup center J.B. Reafsnyder said. “He made up for those shots he missed in Denver.”

After struggling from the free-throw line during the first four rounds of the NCAA Tournament, Burgan broke free of his slump, going 5 for 6 against the Bulldogs.

“The coaches all week have been telling me that free throws are a mental state,” Burgan said. “During practice I tried to slow and focus on making it, blocking everything else out, just me and the basket. And I think I did a good job of that.”

Despite the importance of his free throw proficiency, Burgan’s 3-pointer with 5:41 remaining might have been the biggest shot of the game for the Orangemen.

MSU starting power forward Russell Walters had just picked up his fourth personal foul.

The Bulldogs were forced to find someone else to guard Wallace. Jones, who gives up two inches, received the assignment. The Orangemen looked to exploit the obvious mismatch by giving the ball to Wallace, who scored a game-high 21 points.

Wallace posted up Jones on the next two times down the court, scoring on both occasions.

In order to defend against this mismatch, the Bulldogs went to a zone.

“We decided to go zone because we were small at that point,” Williams said.

The Orangemen took a timeout to adjust their offense to a defensive switch.

Boeheim said he wanted to get Cipolla open for a 3-pointer, but the junior couldn’t get a good look at the basket, so Burgan became the open man.

“Todd Burgan, as everybody knows, ahs been struggling,” Boeheim said. “I talked to him and he said ‘I can make the shot.’

“And I said, ‘I guess you can’ He made the big one. “That’s what we try to do at Syracuse, is let the players play the game. It’s his shot. If he doesn’t take that 3 agaisnt their zone, we may not win the game.”

Published on April 1, 2016 at 3:31 pm