March 18, 2000

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By RUSTY MILLER

AP Sports Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) – Preston Shumpert knew what was riding on a flick of hiswrist.

Shumpert’s jumper from in front of the Syracuse bench with 37 seconds leftwas the difference as the Orangemen held off Kentucky 52-50 on Saturday in thesecond round of the Midwest Regional.

“When you get shots like that in the clutch, the first thing you usually dois tense up. I’m glad I didn’t,” Shumpert said.

Both teams struggled offensively.

“It looked like an ugly game,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said, “butwe’re moving on.”

The Orangemen (26-5) will play the Michigan State-Utah winner in next week’sregional semifinal in Auburn Hills, Mich. Kentucky (23-10) goes home with onlyits third loss in its last 24 NCAA tournament games over five seasons.

Syracuse, which lost to Kentucky in the 1996 championship game, won despitenot having leading scorer and rebounder Etan Thomas for most of the secondhalf. He was watching from just a few feet away as Shumpert’s shot fell, havingfouled out with 3:46 left.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in my teammates,” Thomas said. “They’vebeen in situations before when they’ve had to play without me. They knew theyhad to step up, and they did.”

Thomas, the school’s career leader in blocked shots, picked up his fourthfoul away from the ball with 13:22 left and sat out the next five minutes.

While he was out, a 33-31 Syracuse lead was transformed into a 42-40 deficitas Kentucky pounded the ball inside to twin towers Jamaal Magloire and JulesCamara. Magloire scored the first four points and Tayshaun Prince – scorelessto that point – supplied the last 10 of what would be a 14-9 run.

Thomas returned and scored the Orangemen’s next four points, keying an 8-3spurt for a 48-45 lead. But Thomas was called for his fifth foul with 3:46 leftwhen he hacked Prince on a drive in traffic.

Prince hit one foul shot and Camara followed with a pair of thunderous dunksas the Wildcats pulled even at 50 as the clock hit the two-minute mark.

The teams traded turnovers before Jason Hart drove the left side of the laneand whipped a long bounce pass to Shumpert on the opposite side of the court.

“That’s one of our designed plays,” Hart said. “I didn’t go over the top.I went backdoor and found him.”

After releasing the shot, Shumpert made contact with Prince and fell to thefloor.

“I just tried to hold my follow-through as long as I could,” the 6-foot-7sophomore said. “The ball came to me and I just tried to step up and knock itdown.”

Boeheim jumped while holding his arms up in the 3-point signal, trying toinfluence the officials.

Kentucky set up its offense after three late timeouts and a Syracuse foulthat stopped the clock with 5.9 seconds left. The Wildcats decided to give theball to freshman Keith Bogans, their third-leading scorer.

“We designed it for Keith coming off a screen,” Magloire said.

With the Orangemen bunched inside in a tight zone, Bogans drove the lane andtossed up an off-balance 10-footer that came up short. Prince missed on a tipas the horn sounded.

“With only 5.9 seconds left, it was tough to get through that zone,”Prince said.

Shumpert was the only Syracuse player in double figures with 12 points.Thomas had nine points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots. Ryan Blackwell,forced to do most of the work inside in Thomas’ absence, had nine points andseven rebounds. Three teammates had at least six points.

After winning its first 19 games, Syracuse came into the tournament havingwon only half of its last 10 games.

“I don’t think anybody expected us to get this far, especially after thesluggish way we ended the season,” Blackwell said.

Magloire had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats and Bogans alsohad 12 points. Prince and Camara had 10 points apiece.

Kentucky, which got by St. Bonaventure 85-80 in two overtimes in the firstround, had won 11 of its last 12 second-round games. It hadn’t lost in thesecond round since falling to Marquette six years ago.

The Orangemen, even without substantial help from Thomas, outrebounded theWildcats 40-33 and had 21 offensive rebounds. Kentucky also had 19 turnovers.

“What killed us was second-chance points,” Kentucky coach Tubby Smithsaid. “And we had some curious turnovers.”

Both teams struggled offensively, with Kentucky shooting 40 percent andSyracuse hitting just 20-of-63 shots from the field (32 percent). The Orangemenwere 4-of-21 on 3-pointers.

“We were lucky,” Boeheim said. “It was one of those games where no onecould make a shot.”

Except for the one by Shumpert.