Two nights prior to Oklahoma’s Elite Eight matchup with Syracuse, Sooners assistant coaches Bennie Seltzer made his best attempt to decode the Orangemen’s 2-3 zone.

As the coaches scouted SU’s 79-78 victory over Auburn in the Sweet 16, Seltzer scribbled observations onto a yellow legal pad and circled what he deemed to be the weak part of the defense.

But during the Elite Eight matchup, the Sooners found few holes. The third-seeded Orangemen’s defense triumphed, holding OU’s leading scorer Hollis Price to just eight points, to defeat top-seeded Oklahoma 63-47 in front of 15,207 at the Pepsi Arena in Albany on March 30, 2003.

Syracuse advanced to the Final Four for the fourth time in program history, where SU faced Texas at the Superdome in New Orleans.

‘Our defense was the difference,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said on March 30, 2003. ‘We were very active on the defensive end. It’s probably the best we’ve played defensively all year. We did a good job of making them shoot tough shots.’

Syracuse turned in its best defensive performance of the season, limiting the Sooners to just 31 percent shooting. Oklahoma’s 47 points were the fewest the Orangemen allowed all season.

And as SU’s defense keyed in on Price, the Sooners’ offense became less effective. The guard hit on just 3-of-17 field goals, including 2-of-11 from beyond the arc.

‘We knew their offense goes through Hollis Price,’ SU forward Carmelo Anthony said. ‘He’s the driver of their car. Once we took him away, everything just broke down.’

SU’s defense proved to be too much to handle for the Sooners. The Orangemen forced 19 turnovers to key their own offensive attack. It started early in the game, as three straight forced turnovers allowed SU to storm out to a 10-3 lead.

And Syracuse never looked back, leading by as many as 18 points in the second half.

Anthony finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and forward Hakim Warrick tallied 13 points to pace SU.

With an apparent victory and East Regional championship in hand, chants of ‘Final Four!’ rained down on the court and the celebration began.

Chants of ‘One More Year!’ erupted as Anthony took his turn cutting down the net. Boeheim stood beaming with son James III in his arms. Assistant coach Mike Hopkins whispered, ‘We’re champions buddy,’ into his son’s ear.

And Syracuse took one more step toward proving all of its doubters wrong.

Said center Craig Forth: ‘Based on what everybody was saying, we weren’t thought to do much of anything. Now, here we are. And maybe we did play with a chip on our shoulder the whole time, kind of expecting to win.’

-Compiled by Andrew Tredinnick, asst. copy editor, adtredin@syr.edu

Published on March 23, 2012 at 12:00 pm