Big East: Cincy tops No. 2 Syracuse, Louisville pounds Notre Dame

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cincinnati didn't spend much time celebrating its biggest win of the season. That's because the Bearcats have one more game to go for their first Big East title.

Minutes after shooting their way to a 17-point lead and then holding on to beat No. 2 Syracuse 71-68 on Friday night and advance to their first Big East championship game, the Bearcats were already thinking about what could be.

"I walked in the locker room and the guys had written `We need to win one more' on the board. I didn't even have to write it," Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said.

The fourth-seeded Bearcats (24-9) will meet seventh-seeded Louisville in Saturday night's championship game at Madison Square Garden. The Cardinals beat third-seeded and 23rd-ranked Notre Dame 64-50.

To get there, they ended the 11-game winning streak of the top-seeded Orange (31-2). They did it with an incredible shooting performance over the opening 14 minutes of the game when they took a 17-point lead, and then by holding on as Syracuse was able to get within one point in the final seconds.

"It's a huge win for our program," Cronin said. "I think what you've got to realize in college basketball is you've got to allow teams the course of the season, some teams get better."

Now a program that made headlines early in the season for a brawl against intra-city rival Xavier and sunk as low as losing at home to Presbyterian, has its seventh win over a ranked team this season, the most in the country.

"No, not at first, but as the season went on, yeah," forward Yancy Gates said of thinking about playing for the conference title.

Gates was one of four Cincinnati players suspended for the December fight with Xavier. He missed six games for throwing a blindside punch in the fracas. That all seems a long time ago.

Gates and Sean Kilpatrick both had 18 points for Cincinnati, which rebounded from one of its worst 3-point efforts in the quarterfinals against Georgetown with one of its best against Syracuse.

"Over the course of the entire season, we lead the Big East in 3-point point field goals made. We've made more 3s than anybody in the Big East," Cronin said. "We're standing there wide open. Last night, we were 2 for 21. We shot seven that went in and out. We've got guys that can make shots, so law of averages catches up."

Dion Waiters had 28 points for Syracuse, which was able to close within 69-68 with 5.4 seconds left when he made two free throws - and the second one he was trying to miss. Justin Jackson was all alone when he dunked with 1 second left for a three-point lead and Waiters' desperation heave from beyond midcourt was off at the buzzer.

The loss shouldn't hurt the Orange's chances of being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but it did keep them from getting a chance to play for a sixth Big East title and first since 2006.

"Cincinnati moved the ball better than we did. They got some real good looks. They made eight 3s in the first half, and we didn't get anything going offensively in the first half. I was shocked that we were within 12," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "We just couldn't get anything going. We'd get close a couple times.

"And then late, Dion made a couple really difficult 3s, and we got it to two and we had an opportunity, and we just couldn't make a play there. We wanted Dion to try to miss the second one, but he's such a good shooter, he couldn't do that."

Cashmere Wright and Dion Dixon both had 11 for the Bearcats, who came into the Big East tournament with their at-large NCAA berth still up for debate. That's no longer true with the double-overtime quarterfinal win over No. 13 Georgetown and the victory over Syracuse in their first-ever semifinal appearance.

The Bearcats shredded Syracuse's famed 2-3 zone from the start, making six of their first seven 3-point attempts. They made eight of their first 10 shots from beyond the arc in taking a 34-17 lead with 5:43 left in the first half, with Kilpatrick going 4 of 4. That was one point shy of Syracuse's biggest deficit this season, and that came at Notre Dame in its only loss. It was only the third time this season the Orange trailed by double figures.

The sellout crowd of 20,057, which was wearing a lot of orange, was stunned as Syracuse shot 31 percent in the first half (9 of 29), while the Bearcats went 13 of 26 and had an assist on all but one of the field goals. A modest 6-1 run to close the half had Syracuse within 35-23.

The crowd came alive as the Orange chipped away at the lead. They became the team with the touch from 3-point range, shooting 9 of 17 in the second half while Cincinnati missed its first six 3s. Kilpatrick made the Bearcats' only 3s of the second half in nine attempts, the second from the left corner as the shot clock ran out that made it 65-55 with 1:47 to play.

"Cashmere just told me to stay in the corner, and then Coach was telling me to go to the corner because Kris Joseph, he was going to come up and play Cash because Cash was hot, as well, throughout the game," Kilpatrick said "Once he played Cash, I was just wide open, so it was a good thing that Cash caught me."

The Orange, though, weren't done.

Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph and Waiters all made a 3 in the final 37 seconds. Waiters' 3 made it 68-66 with 17 seconds to play.

JaQuon Parker made one of two free throws with 15.6 seconds left. Waiters was fouled before he could get off a possible tying 3-pointer. He made the first and when the second went through the net, he turned to the Syracuse bench with slumped shoulders as he apparently tried to miss it to give the Orange one last chance.

"No matter who you're playing, the top half of our league, the game is never over," Cronin said. "It's human nature to flinch a little bit when they come. Obviously it's like a home game for them, which makes the win even sweeter for us. But we hesitated for a little bit and didn't attack their pressure. Once we started attacking their pressure, we were able to get it back to a 10-point lead.

"I kept telling the guys in the timeouts, this is going to be a crazy ending and we're going to win by more than 10 because we got to break the press. I have seen them play. When they get behind, they're going to come. They're not going to sit back in that zone. They're going to come. So we did a pretty good job after our initial hesitation of attacking their pressure."

It was the second straight year Syracuse lost in the semifinals. Connecticut beat the Orange 76-71 in overtime last season on its way to the tournament title.

"We've won 31 games, and we've proven what we can do and we've got to get back and we have to play a little better from the beginning," Boeheim said. "Most national championships, not all, but a lot of them, have been won by teams that lose in their conference tournament, including us. So as much as we want to win this tournament, the tournament that starts next week is the only one that matters. Nothing else matters anymore in college basketball."

Cardinals dominate Irish to advance

NEW YORK (AP) -- Peyton Siva and his Louisville teammates know all about playing for the Big East championship.

Notre Dame still has no idea what it's like.

Siva delivered another near-flawless floor game, Gorgui Dieng scored 16 points and Louisville dominated No. 23 Notre Dame 64-50 on Friday night to reach the title game at Madison Square Garden for the third time in four years.

The cat-quick Cardinals held the Fighting Irish without a field goal for the final 12:42 in the first half and advanced to play Cincinnati on Saturday night. The fourth-seeded Bearcats, a first-time finalist, upset No. 2 Syracuse 71-68 in the first semifinal, handing the top-seeded Orange their second loss of the season.

"We've wanted to get to this championship game again," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "We lost it last year in a very close battle, and now we get the opportunity to play for it again, and it's a great opportunity."

Seventh-seeded Louisville (25-9), looking for its second tournament title since joining the league for the 2005-06 season, denied Notre Dame again in its quest to make the championship game for the first time. The third-seeded Fighting Irish (22-11) fell to 0-5 in the semifinal round - all under coach Mike Brey.

The matchup between Louisville and Cincinnati, both unranked, will be the first Big East final without at least one original league member. The Cardinals lost at Cincinnati 60-56 on Feb. 23.

"I think Conference USA has come to the Big Apple," Pitino said.

The blowout was a bit of a surprise if only because the Irish and Cardinals have played such close contests in recent years.

The previous four games between the teams - and five of the past six - went to overtime. The schools split those four meetings, with two going to double OT, including Notre Dame's 67-65 victory at Louisville on Jan. 7.

But this time, Siva and his running mates throttled the Irish in the first half and never let up. The junior point guard flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 13 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

Perhaps the singular star of the tournament so far, he had 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals in a comfortable quarterfinal win over No. 9 Marquette. That followed 14 points and six steals in a second-round victory over Seton Hall.

With Siva running the show in Louisville's new lightweight, neon-orange uniforms, Pitino improved to 41-13 in conference tournaments. He goes for his 10th title Saturday night.

"Coach P told us before we got in the Big East, just forget about the regular season, that we're starting a new season now," Siva said. "Everybody really bought into that. Everybody really bought into defense on this team, and everybody was really feeding off that."

The Cardinals came in ranked fifth nationally in field goal percentage defense (38 percent) and certainly showed why. Notre Dame shot 2 for 17 (12 percent) from 3-point range and 36 percent overall, becoming the sixth opponent in Louisville's last seven games to be held to 60 points or fewer.

Kyle Kuric added 12 points for the Cardinals, who shot 56 percent from the field - their best mark in a Big East tournament game.

Notre Dame is the only team to reach the semifinals of this tournament each of the last three years. But it has never advanced any further since joining the Big East for the 1995-96 season, also getting eliminated in the semifinals in 2002 and 2007.

"We had another chance tonight to do something we haven't done in our program before," junior forward Jack Cooley said. "It's a pretty big disappointment, but we've just got to move on to the next tournament. The next one next week is the biggest one in the whole season, so that's what we've got to focus on now."

The Irish were knocked out by Louisville last season as well, losing 83-77 in overtime after taking a 16-point lead in the first half.

Notre Dame went the first 8:17 without a turnover and built a six-point advantage on 7-of-14 shooting. But after Pitino put pesky reserve Russ Smith in the game alongside Siva, they forced two giveaways in a row in the backcourt that led to easy baskets.

"I put the two mosquitoes in the game with Russ and Peyton, and they just bother people," Pitino said. "They just gnaw at people. They just really, really get under your skin, and that really gave us a big lift defensively."

Brey called a quick timeout, but his team never regained its shooting touch. Hounded by the much-quicker Cardinals, Notre Dame missed its final 14 shots from the field - jumpers, pull-ups, contested layups - as Louisville closed the half on a 26-4 run to go into the break with a commanding 35-19 cushion.

"Their full-court pressure kind of got to us, and we never really did recover," Brey said. "They defended the heck out of us. We had some open looks that you've got to knock down to kind of stop the bleeding when they were in the midst of their run, and we never got any of those. So give a lot of credit to Louisville, just kind of making us uncomfortable with their defense."

After halftime, it was more of the same. Cooley hit on Notre Dame's first attempt to end the drought, but Kuric drained a pair of 3s in the span of a minute to make it 53-29 with 11:21 to go.

Louisville cruised from there to its eighth victory in its past 10 Big East tournament games. The Cardinals won the 2009 title and lost to Connecticut 69-66 in last year's championship. They have won 11 of their last 16 games overall at Madison Square Garden.

The 6-foot-10 Dieng had an easy time getting low post position against Cooley and Notre Dame's undersized front line. Dieng, who drew Pitino's ire for a technical foul Thursday night that sent him to the bench for a long stretch, tossed in an array of baby hooks and layups.

Cooley, selected Most Improved Player in the Big East this season, had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Eric Atkins was the only other Irish player in double figures with 12 points.

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