NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 2013 Recap: Syracuse Orange Upsets Indiana
The Indiana Hoosiers became the second No. 1 seed in the 2013 NCAA tournament only to be upset, when they fell to the Syracuse Orange 61-50 in the Sweet Sixteen Thursday.
Indiana's cold shooting put them in a 12-point hole heading into halftime and although they were able to outscore Syracuse in the second half, it wasn't nearly enough.
Michael Carter-Williams had one of the best games of his college career Thursday night, scoring a game-high 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting and added five rebounds and four steals. Besides Carter-Williams, the star of the game was Syracuse's defense as Indiana faced inability to make shots. The Hoosiers were held to a season-low 50 points and only shot 33 percent from the field as a team.
Syracuse guard Brandon Triche said, "Not too many teams are used to our zone. That's what we play. Other teams that play zone, they (also) play man, they switch up defenses. But our main (thing) is zone. ... We're very long, and we're very active, and when we're active like we were today, we're hard to score on."
Syracuse head coach concurred with his guard's assessment, saying, "Our perimeter defense was tremendous. This is one of our best defensive teams ever. They play it well."
Victor Oladipo was able to score, putting up a team-high 16 points on an efficient 5-of-8 mark from the field. Center Cody Zeller posted a double-double, scoring 10 points and recording 10 rebounds, but was often pushed around in the paint by Syracuse's players. His 10 points came on a dreadful 27 percent from the field. Zeller was only able to hit three of his 11 shots.
The Orange will face the No. 3 seed Marquette Golden Eagles in the Elite Eight, a well-known opponent from the Big East. While Marquette enters the game with less pedigree than the Hoosiers Syracuse just defeated, Boeheim recognizes the threat they pose. The game will be on March 30th at 4:30 p.m.
"We're much better when we play teams that don't know us," Boeheim said. "Marquette knows us. They know how to play against us, so it will be very difficult."
