The Alternative Press

NEWARK, N.J. - For the final time as a member of the Big East, the No. 6 Syracuse Orange beat the Seton Hall Pirates in a regular season game, 76-65, at Prudential Center on Saturday.

The Pirates never trailed by more than 14 in the game. In fact, the Hall led by as many as nine points in the first half before the Orange's Brandon Triche took over, scoring 29 points in the win.

"Seton Hall is a difficult team for us, they really move the ball well and shoot the ball well from the three-point line," Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. "We really gave a few of those to them early, after that we defended better."

Seton Hall opened the game hot from the floor, hitting their first three 3-pointers, including two from Fuquan Edwin, to take a 9-6 advantage.

With the score 11-8, the Pirates went on a 10-4 run capped by a corner tre from Haralds Karlis, going ahead 21-12 with 11:30 to go.

"With all the injuries, Haralds has grown into his role a little bit," Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard said. "I think he's starting to get a little more confidence with his offense and that's fun to see."

The Hall followed the streak with 6:37 of scoreless basketball.

Syracuse responded with a 12-0 run to go up by one point and they never looked back, ending the first half up 36-30.

"I thought that the big response was in the beginning," Boeheim said. "We were down quite a bit, obviously when you get off to that kind of start, you're not in a good position. We had to get some stops and we had to get some scores. That's what got us back in the game."

After the break, Seton Hall cut the Orange's lead to four when Aaron Cosby hit a straight-away deep ball, but Triche answered with an off-balanced jump shot and a free-throw to retake the seven-point lead.

The Pirates were never able to take a sustained run in the final 20 minutes, as Syracuse answered almost every made basket.

When the Orange did not hit from the floor, Syracuse sunk their free-throws, going 15-20 in the second half, while the Pirates missed 12 attempts in the final 20 minutes, including four from Edwin.

"It is very frustrating because even my four free-throws I missed towards the end of the game could have lifted us up," Edwin said.

The Pirates will return to the floor on Tuesday when they host Marquette. Seton Hall will be without Brandon Mobley and possibly Brian Oliver.

Willard announced after the game that Mobley will have season-ending shoulder surgery to fix a chipped bone. Oliver has "a self-proclaimed ankle injury."

"I haven't played a Big East game yet with a full roster so as much as I hate losing, I'm still very optimistic with where we are going," Willard said.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Prudential Center.