It was an emotional finish, one which Syracuse and Vermont players alike didn’t know how to cope with.

Syracuse senior Hakim Warrick simply couldn’t deal. On his way off the court, he sat on the Syracuse bench and covered his head.

With a minute left and a four-point lead, Vermont head coach Tom Brennan peered into the rafters, let out a yell and pumped his fists toward the heavens.

Whatever the reaction, the numbers on the scoreboard at the end of the game indicated the same finish for both teams – a 60-57 overtime victory for the Vermont Catamounts over the Syracuse Orange.

‘I don’t even know what to feel right now,’ UVM guard T.J. Sorrentine said. ‘It’s an unbelievable feeling. I just can’t describe it.’

The reason for the numbness – the conundrum of too much feeling and none at all – was the America East conference’s first NCAA Tournament win since 1996. The No. 13 seed’s upset of Big East champion and No. 4 seed Syracuse had more swings than a grade school playground.

Watch the overtime period alone and you can capture the emotion in this game. With 1:28 remaining and a one-point lead for Vermont, Sorrentine did the unthinkable. He waved off Brennan’s play calls – assuring him he had control of the game – allowed the shot clock to run down to four and then nailed a 3-pointer from a few feet outside the key.

Taken by surprise, Gerry McNamara didn’t even have time to think of defending Sorrentine.

‘We put ourselves in that position,’ SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.

‘When that shot went in, I thought I might burst,’ Brennan said. ‘This is (Sorrentine’s) team. He took shots I didn’t want him to take, but why should he (listen to me)?’

It was a dagger in the hearts of the Orange, one that caused Boeheim to sit and contemplate what had just occurred.

Though Syracuse was in the game, keeping it close all along, the Orange did not look like the team that won the Big East tournament. Though Warrick finished with 21 points, Vermont restricted him from getting the easy points he was used to.

Whatever shots Gerry McNamara found were poor ones, too. The junior shot 1-for-7 from the 3-point line and 4-for-18 overall.

The Catamounts pressured the ball heavily and created eight Syracuse turnovers in the first 14 minutes of the game.Though undersized, Vermont was opportunistic on the offensive glass, grabbing seven offensive rebounds in the first half. Score or not, the Catamounts made sure to cycle the ball on every offensive possession. A simple philosophy of when they had the ball, the Orange couldn’t score.

‘We held the ball and we didn’t shoot,’ Brennan said.

While the game was in a slow stalemate in the first half, for the Catamounts it was just a matter of getting their shots to fall in the second. After shooting 1-for-9 in the first half from the 3-point line, Vermont scored 10 points in the first 4:30 of the second half, giving the Catamounts a three-point lead.

‘They’re good,’ McNamara said of the lower-seeded Catamounts. ‘We knew that coming in.’

The Catamounts continued to waste time on every offensive possession, content holding three- and four-point leads at the risk of letting the game open up.

With 8:59 remaining, on a play that could’ve sparked an Orange run, Terrence Roberts dunked SU to within three but was whistled for a technical foul after he slapped the backboard. Sorrentine made the two ensuing free throws, giving UVM a five-point lead.

It wasn’t until Syracuse applied a full-court press with 8:04 left did the Orange make things interesting.

SU took a two-point lead with 1:12 remaining in regulation. But a Taylor Coppenrath jumper with 53 seconds left sent the game to overtime.

From there, no team pulled away. Vermont continued to use as much of the shot clock as it could, sealing the win with Sorrentine’s bomb from downtown.

‘I feel empathy for those guys,’ Brennan said of Syracuse. ‘We held the ball and we didn’t shoot. They were out of sync with the defenses we were giving them.’

The win marked the end of a season and the end of a career for three SU seniors – Warrick, Josh Pace and Craig Forth.

‘It’s always difficult to lose in the tournament any time,’ Boeheim said. ‘These guys had tremendous careers, they’re great kids.’

Published on March 18, 2005 at 12:00 pm