NEW YORK — Kris Joseph could have had the perfect excuse for his ugly shooting performance. He jammed his finger in pregame warm-ups prior to going 1-of-8 from the field against Connecticut.

But he explained in the postgame press conference that the injury was to his non-shooting hand and had no effect on his play.

Head coach Jim Boeheim, however, thought his senior should have used that explanation.

‘Just say it was,’ Boeheim said. ‘You can’t shoot that bad unless you’re hurt.’

Joseph struggled to convert from the field in No. 2 Syracuse’s 58-55 win over Connecticut in the Big East tournament quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. But that didn’t stop him from coming up big in the second half against the Huskies as the senior scored eight of his 10 points after halftime on strong drives past helpless UConn guard Jeremy Lamb. Although he had trouble producing from the field, he repeatedly got to the free-throw line to help the Orange come from behind for the win.

‘I just had to keep going,’ Joseph said. ‘(The coaches) just told me to keep being aggressive. That’s what I tried to emphasize in the second half. I just tried to keep going to the basket, keep attacking Lamb and the bigs down low.’

The senior shot 0-of-5 in the first half and only made one trip to the free-throw line before the break. But the key moment for him came on one of those misses.

After he drove past the smaller Lamb on the left side with a little more than a minute left in the half, his shot was too strong off the glass. But SU guard Brandon Triche was there to clean it up with a monstrous two-handed tip slam over Ryan Boatright.

That’s when something clicked for Joseph. The small forward stands at 6 feet 7 inches, 215 pounds. Lamb is a lanky 6 feet 5 inches, 180 pounds.

‘He’s a smaller guard,’ Joseph said. ‘I have a height advantage. I have a weight advantage. I kind of exploited it that the first game at the (Carrier Dome) and a little bit in the second game at their house. I just had to do it again.’

Just in case Joseph didn’t realize his size advantage after the first half, he said the entire coaching staff made sure he understood what he needed to do at halftime.

The senior showed that he got the message in the second half. On SU’s second possession, he attacked the rim on a drive early in the possession and drew a foul from Boatright.

He missed both free throws but with the coaches’ halftime instructions in mind, he continued to penetrate.

‘They just tell me I have to get it going but not to rush anything,’ Joseph said. ‘That it’ll come eventually. That’s what kind of happened today.’

It didn’t happen right away, but after UConn built a 39-31 lead with 14 minutes left, Joseph started to put his head down and attack. After a timeout, the senior drove from the left side to the middle of the paint and drew a foul on Shabazz Napier. This time he converted both free throws to pull SU within six.

On the next possession, he drove baseline but used a jump-stop to pull up under the basket. That got Connecticut big man Alex Oriakhi off balance and when Joseph went up for the shot, Oriakhi fouled him again.

That trend continued as Joseph took 11 free throws in the second half, making six of them.

‘Coach was on him about the way he was playing,’ Triche said. ‘He went to the basket and got fouled five or six times in a row. It’s big when you can get points like that.’

Joseph helped spark the Orange comeback with his performance at the charity stripe. And when he finally made his first field goal of the game, it helped seal the win for SU.

With just more than two minutes left, Joseph once again found Lamb in his path to the basket. He drove down the left side, but the UConn guard stayed in front of him this time. Joseph simply rose above the Huskies defense and finished off the glass to put SU up 53-49.

And then with 27 seconds left, his 10th and final point came fittingly at the free-throw line as SU secured the victory.

‘(Lamb) is a great player and he fights hard on both ends of the court,’ Joseph said. ‘But I wanted to make plays and I wanted to be aggressive going to the basket.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on March 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm