Cougars Fall Short At Buzzer Orangemen Win Carrier Classic, Surviving Antrum’s Last-Second Try

Even Shamon Antrum wasn’t sure if the off-balance jump shot that he took just before the final buzzer Saturday was for the win or the tie.

Washington State’s senior guard stepped over the 3-point line just before falling back and launching the shot that could have reversed the outcome of the Cougars’ 77-75 loss to host Syracuse in the championship game of the 19th annual Carrier Classic.

“Actually, I didn’t know where I was at the time,” Antrum admitted. “I just wanted to get off a comfortable shot, period.”

For the record, the official closest to Antrum raised both hands to signal a 3-point try. But when the shot bounced off the back of an unfriendly rim, it hardly mattered.

Syracuse (6-0), despite not having scored in the last 5 minutes and 38 seconds of the game, had won it’s 14th consecutive Classic and made a strong case for being voted into the Top 25 in this week’s Associated Press college basketball poll.

The Orangemen, abusing WSU inside, got 24 points from senior forward John Wallace and 21 from senior center Otis Hill to hand the Cougars their first loss in four games this season.

Backup forward J.B. Reafsnyder added 12 points as the Syracuse front line accounted for 61 points.

“Our inside three were great tonight,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “Obviously, Otis and John were big, but we’ve got to get a little more at both ends of the court from our backcourt if we’re going to be successful as we go through the season.”

It wasn’t until WSU, trailing 73-64, got out of its man-to-man defense and into a zone with just more than 7 minutes left that the Cougars were able to make one final run at an upset.

An 11-4 burst, fueled by the defensive switch, got the Cougars to within a basket with 59 seconds remaining.

“At some point, you’ve just got to change something if you can’t stop what they’re currently doing,” WSU coach Kevin Eastman said of his late-game defensive change. “Their big men were very active posting up tonight and very difficult to guard.

“Sometimes with a zone, if it’s played properly, you can discourage interior passes and I thought we did that. And I thought we did an extremely excellent job of matching up to their shooters in the zone.”

But several blown scoring opportunities from inside in the final minutes put it all on Antrum’s shoulders at the end.

Eastman said the shot his Cougars got at the end was not exactly what he drew up after calling timeout with just more than 5 seconds left.

The inbounds pass went to Isaac Fontaine, but the Cougars’ scoring leader and best outside shooter, was too closely guarded to take a shot. He dumped the ball off to Antrum, who stepped forward, made a ball fake and then launched the fallaway that missed.

“It was basically a screen-to-screener set,” Eastman explained. “We didn’t execute it as well as we like, but it was a great learning experience.

“As a player, you feel rushed. But 5.4 seconds, to a coach, is a long time. I thought Isaac, in particular, had great presence of mind to understand that, ‘Hey, I don’t have this shot, I’ll take a dribble in here, I still have some time.’ And Shamon could have just thrown the ball up as soon as he touched it, but he made a ball fake and tried to make a dribble move.

“Our thoughts were the right ones. We just didn’t make the shot.”

The Cougars, who got 19 points each from Fontaine, Mark Hendrickson and Donminic Ellison, might not have even needed a miracle from Antrum if it hadn’t been for a disastrous 68-second stretch of the first half that resulted in three consecutive Syracuse dunks that momentarily excited a large, but benign, Carrier Dome crowd of 21,002 and put WSU in a catch-up mode for the rest of the game.

Everything went haywire for the Cougars when Ellison landed wrong on his right ankle on a drive to the basket. The Cougars were down 29-26 at the time, but before Ellison could get taped up and back in the game, his teammates turned the ball over three times, missed a fast-break dunk opportunity and gave the Orangemen six points - all on thundering dunks.

“That was huge, especially my play,” said Hendrickson, who mishandled a pass on a three-on-one break and slammed the ball off the back of the rim. “I probably took (the dunk) for granted and I think that’s what started the run.”

What actually started the run was the loss of Ellison and two quick turnovers by little-used junior college transfer Kareem Jackson, who replaced him at the point.

Ellison, who went to the locker room to have his ankle taped, said he had a good sense of what was happening to his teammates.

“When I was in the locker room, I heard nothing but cheers, and I knew they wasn’t for us,” Ellison explained.

“That showed that we’re probably going to go just as far as Donminic takes us,” said Hendrickson. “The point guard position is real important and he’s one of the best in the league.”

Ellison missed only 3 minutes, but WSU scored only two points while he was out.

WSU, which plays Montana at Friel Court back in Pullman Wednesday night, placed Fontaine, Ellison and Hendrickson on the all- tournament team.

Wallace was named the tournament’s most valuable player and Hill was also named to the alltournament team, along with Canisius forward Darrell Barley. Syracuse 77, Washington St. 75

WASHINGTON ST. (3-1)

Hendrickson 8-16 3-6 19, Fontaine 5-14 7-10 19, Mack 2-6 0-2 4, Antrum 4-9 2-3 12, Ellison 8-13 0-0 19, Daniel 0-1 0-0 0, Scott 1-1 0-0 2, Jackson 0-0 0-1 0. Totals 28-60 12-22 75.

SYRACUSE (6-0)

Wallace 9-18 5-6 24, Burgan 2-6 0-0 4, Hill 9-15 3-5 21, Janulis 2-5 2-2 7, Sims 3-7 0-0 7, Cipolla 1-5 0-0 2, Reafsnyder 5-8 2-2 12, Patrick 0-0 0-0 0, Lazor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-64 12-15 77.

Halftime-Syracuse 42, Washington St. 31. 3-Point goals- Washington St. 7-18 (Ellison 3-5, Fontaine 2-4, Antrum 2-6, Hendrickson 0-3), Syracuse 3-13 (Wallace 1-2, Janulis 1-2, Sims 1-3, Cipolla 0-4). Fouled out-Burgan. Rebounds-Washington St. 36 (Hendrickson 12), Syracuse 39 (Wallace 8). Assists- Washington St. 12 (Ellison 7), Syracuse 16 (Sims 6). Total fouls- Washington St. 16, Syracuse 21. Technicals-Hill. A-21,002.

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