Syracuse Advances To Sweet 16 Despite Ugly Second Half

Despite playing in what coach Jim Boeheim referred to as a road game, the Syracuse Orange were firing on all cylinders in the first half of their NCAA third round matchup against California. 

And, its a good thing because they need that cushion to survive a 12-minute bucket-less drought in the second half. Despite only making six field goals in the final 20-minutes, the Orange were able to hang on for a 66-60 win over the Golden Bears in San Jose.

C.J. Fair led the way with 18 points, followed  by 14 from James Southerland. Michael Carter Williams turned the ball over five times, but scored a dozen. Baye Keita had eleven points and seven rebounds.

Cal, a 12-seed, were led by 22 points and 14 boards from Richard Solomon .

'Cuse, the East Region's fourth-seed, were clicking offensively for the first 20-minutes and used a suffocating zone-D to keep Cal in check, taking a 32-24 lead at the break. In the opening minutes, Syracuse forced six turnovers while, during that same stretch of time hold the Golden Bears to three shot attempts.

Syracuse advances to the Sweet 16 for the 18th time in program history, and for the third time in the past four years, according to suathletics.com. They'll play the winner of (1) Indiana vs. (8) Temple.