Big East Tournament Semifinals
#9 Connecticut Huskies vs. #4 Syracuse Orange, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Friday, March 11, 2011, 7:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Syracuse -3
Current Line: Syracuse -3.5
Opening Total: 136
Current Total: 136.5
Money Line: Syracuse -160 / UConn +140
The fourth-seeded Syracuse Orange (26-6) ended their four-game losing streak with a 66-58 road win against ninth-seeded Connecticut Huskies (24-9) back on February 2. Now the Huskies will try to stop the Orange’s six-game winning streak when they meet again Friday in the semifinals of the Big East Conference tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Syracuse (-3.5) has won the last three meetings in the series after losing the previous two, including an epic 127-117 six-overtime victory in the tournament quarterfinals two years ago. Orange senior Rick Jackson and junior Kris Joseph were both involved in that record-setting game, totaling 10 points and six rebounds between them. The duo was a lot more instrumental in Thursday’s 79-73 quarterfinal win over fifth-seeded St. John’s, combining for 24 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.
The Red Storm led 37-32 at halftime, but Syracuse sophomore Brandon Triche and freshman Fab Melo stepped up big after the intermission. Triche struggled with his shooting early on before finishing with a season-high 22 points while Melo totaled a career-high 12, including two key baskets in the last two minutes to put the Orange up for good.
Connecticut had won the earlier quarterfinal matchup with top seed Pittsburgh in dramatic fashion, as leading scorer Kemba Walker scored the game-winning shot at the buzzer for a 76-74 victory. Walker played all 40 minutes for the fifth time in the last 10 games and kept shooting like he has all season despite missing more shots than he made. He ended up with 24 points on 8 of 22 shooting to win his duel with Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs, who scored a game-high 27 points and missed just three of his 13 shots.
Walker started the season on fire offensively, but a midseason shooting slump kept him from winning Big East Player of the Year honors. He scored a season-low eight points on 3 of 14 shooting against Syracuse in the last meeting and will need to do a much better job of attacking the Orange’s vaunted 2-3 zone defense this time around if his Huskies are going to advance to Saturday’s championship game.
Triche is a much bigger guard than Walker and scored a team-high 16 points in the last meeting while Jackson added 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Syracuse has gone 5-1 against the spread during the winning streak with the total going OVER in the team’s past two games. UConn has won three in a row both straight-up and ATS with the total going OVER each time.
Now that you have read this Big East tournament betting preview featuring Syracuse & UConn, check out the NCAA basketball odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.
