big east game #5 ... #5 syracuse 72, #9 west virginia 71 ... add this one to the already long list of tight, well played games decided in the final seconds in the big east this season ... when you match the 5th and 9th ranked teams in the country ... when you match up two of the original big east basketball powerhouses ... you expect excellent basketball ... we got that this afternoon

early on, it's a stifling syracuse zone, then west virginia "d" and cuse turnovers ... the orange have early leads, the mountaineers come back ... one point syracuse lead at the half ... mountaineers open the 2nd half aggressively ... they ride momentum to a 6 point lead ... andy rautins and brandon triche lead the the cuse back ... 10 point orange lead late ... west virginia uses the "3" and quick fouls to claw their way back ... almost all the way back ... freshman triche was the star of this one (16 points/5 assists but also 5 turnovers) ... wes johnson played under the weather ... kris joseph, recovered from his ankle twist, was a major contributor (13 points) off the bench ... mookie jones will probably be twitting about playing time come monday .. he only got 3 minutes today

next up is notre dame (14-3/3-1) at 7:00 pm on monday night (espn) from south bend ... in between, another great big east matchup on sunday afternoon ... #11 georgetown (13-2/4-1) vs #4 villanova (15-1/4-0)