Syracuse ousted by Ohio State, 77-70

BOSTON - Most of the thoughts in his head, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim could have spoken at halftime. He saw an opportunity that had passed. A ticket to the Final Four had gone with it.

Ohio State's star big man, Jared Sullinger, spent most of the half on the bench with two fouls. The Buckeyes just aren't that potent an offensive force without him.

Syracuse couldn't take advantage, and back at full strength, No. 2 seed Ohio State won the East Regional at TD Garden and advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 2007 by knocking off the top-seeded Orange, 77-70.

"I thought we lost a little offensive patience in the first half, thought we forced some shots when we should have been more patient," Boeheim said. "We needed to be in a better position at the end of the half."

"We just missed some chippy layups," said Syracuse point guard Scoop Jardine, a Neumann-Goretti High graduate.

After the break, Sullinger kept establishing his inside position, finishing with 19 points in 26 minutes. All the Buckeyes (31-7) were relentless on the offensive boards, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds to 18 defensive boards for Syracuse (34-3). Lenzelle Smith Jr. added 18 points, hitting three three-pointers.

"A great luxury," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said about getting to halftime tied without Sullinger. "Those guys fought . . . I said at halftime, . . . we've got 20 more minutes to do it.' I felt good about . . . [Sullinger] was able to get rest. I knew he was going to play well in the second half."

A "no-comment" came out of Boeheim's mouth even before a question was finished about how the officials affected the flow of the game. There were 49 fouls called, 29 on Syracuse, not including the first-half technical on Boeheim, "first one in about three years, I think," Boeheim said.

"This was going to be an even game no matter what," Boeheim later said, also adding, "I guess we fouled them too many times."

Scoop Jardine, who had 14 points in his final collegiate game, spent most of the final minutes on the bench. Boeheim said Dion Waiters, in foul trouble all night, was Syracuse's best offensive player and Brandon Triche had just hit two three-pointers.

"The loss hurts, but me not playing with these guys for the rest of my life is going to hurt even more," Jardine said. "These are like my brothers, and we came up short today, but for the most part I think we had a great season."

On the officiating, Jardine said, "First of all, I want to give Ohio State a lot of credit. They won the game. Without the referees, they played a good game, and that's all I want to say about that. I think we had a chance to win the game no matter what, with the refs or without them giving us any calls."

Given the absence of Sullinger for the rest of the half, there was some skewed kind of fairness to the 29-29 halftime score.

Official Thomas O'Neill told a pool reporter that Boeheim's technical came because he had been out of the box "three or four times" and O'Neill made a motion that Boeheim was pantomiming an over-the-top call (or non-call). "I said, 'Enough,' " O'Neill said.

Ohio State scored on the first nine second-half possessions that the Buckeyes got in a half-court offense. Only a midcourt double-dribble by Aaron Craft resulted in an empty trip. Another key stretch came later, when Syracuse committed three straight unforced turnovers in its half-court offense.

But Boeheim gave the most credit to Sullinger for taking over in the low block. The absence of Syracuse center Fab Melo, ineligible for this tournament, was a subplot this time.

"You know, Sullinger is just too difficult down low," Boeheim said.