Orange survive rival Hoyas run with OT victory
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Kris Joseph scored a career-high 29 points, hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute of overtime, and No. 2 Syracuse (24-1, 11-1) beat visiting 12th-ranked Georgetown (18-5, 8-4), 64-61, to give coach Jim Boeheim his 880th career win.
Boeheim took sole possession of third place all time in Division I, one more than North Carolina's Dean Smith, but it wasn't easy against the Orange's rival.
The score was tied at 55 after regulation, and freshman Otto Porter scored the first four points of overtime for the Hoyas, swishing two free throws and hitting a baseline jumper to give Georgetown a 61-59 lead with 2:19 left.
Dion Waiters tied it with two free throws for the Orange, and after Porter lost the ball out of bounds at the other end, Scoop Jardine fed Joseph in the left corner, and he buried his career-best sixth 3 of the game with 29 seconds left.
Jardine sealed it by forcing a turnover by Jason Clark with 4.9 seconds to go, allowing Syracuse to remain unbeaten at home at 16-0. Georgetown had won five of six entering the game.
Fab Melo had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks for Syracuse, which won despite being dominated on the glass, 52-35. Jardine finished with eight assists.
Porter led Georgetown with 14 points, Clark had 12 and Hollis Thompson 10.
The 87th meeting between the staunch rivals -- Syracuse leads 48-39 -- had added significance. With Syracuse's impending move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, it might have been the last time the teams meet as Big East foes in the Carrier Dome.
It turned into one to remember for the crowd of 27,820.
Syracuse held Georgetown, second in the Big East from long range, to 5 of 21 (23.8 percent) from beyond the arc.
Greg Whittington's free throw tied it with a minute left and Melo's block on Sims gave the Orange the chance for the win in regulation, but Waiters missed from the top of the key.
• Cincinnati 76, St. John's 54: Sean Kilpatrick scored 10 of his 14 points in the opening five minutes of the second half as visiting Cincinnati (17-7, 7-4) went on to beat St. John's (10-14, 4-8). The blowout win by the Bearcats ended a string of four consecutive games between the teams that ended with two-point margins, including St. John's 57-55 win Jan. 7 at Cincinnati. Kilpatrick, the Bearcats' leading scorer, scored 10 consecutive points as part of a 12-3 run that gave Cincinnati a 44-27 lead with 15:26 to play.
• Junior guard Malik Stith has withdrawn from the St. John's basketball team, citing personal reasons. Red Storm coach Steve Lavin announced that Stith, the only returnee from last season's team, will remain a part of the program in some capacity and will continue to make progress toward earning his degree in sport management. The 5-foot-11 Stith played in all 23 games, starting five, and averaged 2.6 points in 14.6 minutes. ... Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun will miss Saturday's game against No. 2 Syracuse while on an indefinite medical leave of absence because of spinal stenosis, a painful condition in his lower back.
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
