MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For five minutes, Jim Boeheim stood on the sideline and fumed as his team stood on the court and fizzled, its defense collapsing beneath West Virginia’s offensive avalanche.

The Mountaineers scored 21 points in the opening five minutes Saturday, building a nine-point lead that left Boeheim scrambling to scrap his Syracuse men’s basketball team’s 2-3 zone for a man-to-man defense. Though the No. 19 Orangemen struggled with man-to-man early, they settled down and eventually went back to zone in their 94-80 win over the Mountaineers.

‘They were killing our zone,’ SU forward Kueth Duany said. ‘They were eating our zone up. The only way we were gonna stop them was to be aggressive.’

At first, the Orangemen looked lost playing man-to-man. WVU’s Kevin Pittsnogle hit two 3-pointers, the second of which SU center Jeremy McNeil made little effort to defend. On the next West Virginia possession, Drew Schifino blew by SU point guard Gerry McNamara for a layup. McNamara fouled Schifino, and Schifino’s free throw gave the Mountaineers a 27-14 lead.

West Virginia stretched its lead to as many as 15, as Boeheim rubbed his head like a magic lamp, perhaps wishing for a solution to SU’s defensive woes.

‘When we first went to (man), we were horrendous, absolutely horrendous,’ Boeheim said.

But the Orangemen mounted a comeback, taking their first lead, 37-36, with 6:30 left in the first half.

‘When we got back in it with our run,’ Boeheim said, ‘we did a better job with the man-to-man.’

Relying mostly on man-to-man, SU allowed 16 points in the last 11:33 of the half. The Mountaineers’ layups stopped falling, and Pittsnogle, at last challenged by SU defenders, went scoreless over the last 14:50 of the half.

‘Once we settled down, in our zone and our man, we were all right,’ McNamara said.

The Orangemen started the second half in man-to-man but quickly switched to zone. After giving up 47 first-half points, tied for the most this season, they surrendered 33 in the second half.

‘We got a little tired and went back to the zone,’ Boeheim said. ‘We were more effective in it the second time around. We got to the shooters better.’

Boeheim said Thursday he mostly decides when to play man-to-man, which the Orangemen used to clamp down Pittsburgh in a 67-65 upset Feb. 1, during games. Often, game film fails to reveal which defense will work, Boeheim said, before adding, ‘You don’t win or lose a game because you do or don’t switch defenses.’

So it seemed fitting Saturday that while the Orangemen gave up the most points they have all season — tied with last Monday’s win over Georgetown — they put on their most prolific offensive showing since clobbering Albany on Dec. 28.

‘All our defenses worked a little bit,’ Boeheim said. ‘But they also were all bad at times, too.’

Published on February 8, 2003 at 12:00 pm