NEW YORK — The ailments that plagued Syracuse mushroomed from one thread.

The Orange’s two leaders, Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph, were missing in action. Fifteen turnovers, failure to close out on shooters and an inability to penetrate Cincinnati’s zone defense were the effects.

‘When we played our best, Scoop and Kris have been there,’ head coach Jim Boeheim said. ‘Scoop wasn’t there tonight. (Joseph) didn’t get a rebound in 33 minutes, and he’s got to be there for us and Scoop has got to be there.’

For the second straight game, neither Jardine nor Joseph played at the level of expectation. The seniors combined for nine of Syracuse’s 15 turnovers and both finished in single digits in points. Joseph failed to grab a rebound in 33 minutes, and he did not attack much — all six of his shooting attempts were 3-pointers. The substandard play of the two players who normally set the tone for a Syracuse (31-2) win was a huge part of No. 2 SU’s 71-68 loss to Cincinnati (24-9) in the Big East tournament semifinals in Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Jardine and Joseph struggled to ever get into the flow of the game after Cincinnati quickly jumped out to a 25-8 lead to open the game.

‘Every time I seemed like I had something go good for me, something bad happened,’ Jardine said.

One possession after Jardine’s first assist of the game, he committed his first miscue.

Jardine set Dion Waiters up for an NBA-range 3-pointer to cut Syracuse’s early deficit to 10-6. After Cincinnati answered with a JaQuon Parker bucket, Jardine ran a pick-and-roll with Fab Melo.

The guard dribbled around the screen and the center began cutting to the basket. Jardine pulled up at the elbow and sent a pass behind Melo that rolled out of bounds at the Bearcats’ bench.

‘I can go on forever telling you all the things we didn’t do to win this game,’ Jardine said. ‘But it’s a learning experience.’

While Cincinnati came out on fire from 3-point range, making 8-of-10 from deep to start the game, Syracuse did not swarm the Bearcats’ 3-point shooters to stop them. Multiple times, Cincinnati’s ball movement forced Syracuse to converge and opened up a shot for Sean Kilpatrick or Cashmere Wright.

In the second half, Cincinnati’s only triples came on Joseph’s side of the Orange’s zone.

With Syracuse gaining momentum as it worked itself back to within five points of the Bearcats after trailing by as many as 17, Wright got the ball to Kilpatrick in the left corner. He was open, Joseph did not close on him in time, and the triple boosted Cincinnati’s lead to 58-50 with 5:21 remaining.

Kilpatrick stuck a demoralizer in Syracuse from the same exact spot less than four minutes later. This time, Cincinnati broke the Orange’s full-court pressure, and Wright fed Kilpatrick. His sixth 3-pointer of the night, with 1:47 left, helped the Bearcats’ lead swell to 65-55.

‘We’ve made more 3s than anybody in the Big East,’ Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin said. ‘We’re standing there wide open.’

Down the stretch, Joseph and Jardine failed to get inside Cincinnati’s zone and make plays. Joseph helped ignite a comeback against Connecticut on Thursday by driving into his defender and getting to the foul line.

All nine shots he and Jardine took Friday came from 3-point range. Four of them fell, but the lack of penetration forced SU to rely on outside shooting.

Twenty-nine of the Orange’s 57 shot attempts against Cincinnati came from deep.

‘I can’t remember the last time we saw much zone,’ Boeheim said. ‘So I think that’s one thing, we didn’t attack like we probably should and could.’

When Jardine drove to the basket in the second half, it ended in a turnover. He drove around a pick from C.J. Fair and lost the ball out of bounds as he went to the hoop with SU trailing 41-29. Later, with Syracuse trailing 58-53 and on the comeback, Jardine rebounded a missed 3 and started pushing the ball.

But just as quickly as he earned possession, he lost it as UC guard Dion Dixon took the ball away.

By the time Jardine fouled out with 36 seconds left, he had turned the ball over five times, to two assists. And Joseph leaves New York having shot 3-of-14 in SU’s two Big East tournament games.

‘Today I wasn’t really into it, I don’t know why,’ Jardine said, ‘but I think I just have to be aggressive and not really care if I have a bad game.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on March 9, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr