LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a game that wasn’t decided until the final possession, the two biggest plays may have come in the first half.

With Louisville holding a two-point lead 13 minutes into the game, junior guard Peyton Siva blew past the Syracuse defense all the way to the rim. He skied for a finish off the glass, but Orange center Fab Melo slid in front of him at the last moment to draw a charge.

It was Siva’s second foul, but Louisville head coach Rick Pitino left him in the game. On SU’s ensuing possession, Siva was called for a reach-in near the 3-point line.

And just like that, the best player on the floor for both teams to that point was relegated to the bench.

‘I just picked up three stupid fouls that should never have happened,’ Siva said. ‘That was my fault. I took myself out of the game and really cost my teammates a lot.’

When Siva left, he had a game-high eight points and was the only player who flashed any semblance of offensive prowess. He sat for the next 13 minutes of action and never quite reached the same level he was at to start the game as No. 19 Louisville (20-6, 8-5 Big East) ultimately fell to No. 2 Syracuse (26-1, 13-1 Big East) 52-51 Monday at the KFC Yum! Center. Siva didn’t score the rest of the way and committed a critical turnover late that led to the crushing loss.

‘He was tough,’ SU junior guard Brandon Triche said. ‘Without him playing, the movement kind of slowed down. I don’t think he was able to use that confidence from earlier in the game in the last part.’

In the early parts of the first half, Siva seemed to be playing at a different speed than everyone else on the court. He penetrated the Orange’s 2-3 zone at will, dishing off to teammates under the basket or taking it to the rim himself.

He scored Louisville’s first four points of the game on two layups, but it was his first assist that showed off his quickness. He shook Dion Waiters with a crossover at the top of the key, dribbled to the free-throw line and bounced a pass to Chane Behanan under the basket for an easy dunk.

‘He was a spark today, especially early,’ Triche said. ‘Our game plan was to let him shoot a few jump shots, and we basically did the opposite. We were playing off him, and he still was going by us. He was making passes to the big guys, getting them buckets.’

He continued finding the Cardinals’ big men down low, and although they didn’t score directly off those feeds, many of those dishes resulted in trips to the free-throw line. And with both teams struggling mightily to put points on the board, Siva’s foul trouble and ensuing time on the bench completely changed the dynamic of the game.

‘The way I was penetrating and finding people, it really hurt us,’ he said of his time on the sideline.

Syracuse didn’t turn the game around when he was out, but by the time Siva returned, he seemed to have fallen out of the zone he was in to start the game. He did deal out three more assists in the second half but only took one shot after the break.

‘He started out real good,’ SU guard Dion Waiters said. ‘But it’s all about the finish, though.’

And Siva’s finish was nowhere near the caliber of his start.

With the clock ticking less than 30 seconds, the Cardinals turned to Siva to deliver the win. Just as he had multiple times in the first half, he drove into the heart of the Orange zone. As the defense collapsed, he said he thought he saw Gorgui Dieng wide open under the basket. He tried to wrap a pass around a defender, but it zipped slightly behind the center and Waiters picked it off.

Louisville had one final chance after Waiters missed his free throw, but the Cardinals never got a shot off.

And although he may have been the best player on the court when he was out there, Siva couldn’t help but take the blame following the loss.

‘I’ve just got to play a lot smarter,’ Siva said. ‘I made some dumb decisions down the stretch, and I really wasn’t aggressive down the stretch where I should have been. I’ve got to learn from it and come back and play.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on February 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm