The No. 3-ranked Syracuse Orange edged the West Virginia Mountaineers, 63-61, Saturday in a Big East Conference game at the Carrier Dome. The close victory didn't come without controversy, however, as a non-goaltend call on junior forward Deniz Kilicli's game-tying shot with eight seconds remaining cost the Mountaineers a tie ballgame and possible overtime.
(via Breakroombuzz)
"It's inexcusable. It's inexcusable. My kids played their hearts out,' said West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins on his post-game show. "I've done this a long time, and I've never won a game when they didn't call a goaltend on us."
Kilicli also thought the call was obvious.
“It was pretty obvious to us that it was goaltending,” Kilicli said after the game. “We had other chances too, but that was costly.”
The Mountaineers (15-7, 5-4) had another chance to tie the game after Syracuse's senior forward Kris Joseph turned the ball over, but WVU's senior forward Kevin Jones couldn't connect on a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired.
"Baye (Moussa Keita) made an incredible play, an incredible questionable play, but we got a win based on that play," said Syracuse junior guard Brandon Triche, who netted a team-best 18 points including the game-winning points at the free-throw line with 1:28 to go.
SB Nation New York is blogged live from press row at the Carrier Dome for the Syracuse vs. West Virginia Big East showdown. Be sure to check back to this StoryStream for post-game comments from SU head coach Jim Boeheim. For more on the Orange, visit the SB Nation blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, while The Smoking Musket everything on the Mountaineers. Make sure to follow along on Twitter at SBNationNY or JaredSmithCNY.