PHILADELPHIA — Syracuse’s celebrations were on repeat in the first half.

Villanova head coach Jay Wright called two timeouts, and both welcomed the veins on Kaleb Joseph’s neck as he stood near half court. Screaming. Fists clenched.

Twice Trevor Cooney hit a 3-pointer from the same spot on the left wing, and twice he lightly jogged down the sideline. Three soft beats to his chest. A sneaky smirk on his face.

After Cooney penetrated toward the paint and found Chris McCullough on a perfectly-weighted pass to the opposite block, SU assistants Mike Hopkins and Gerry McNamara looked at each other and high-fived. Two minutes later, Tyler Roberson hit a midrange jumper. They high-fived again.

“I thought it was the best game we’ve played all year,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “… They started to get the ball inside a little bit against us in the second half and that turned their offense around. But when they tied the game we needed a couple of big plays.”

Syracuse (6-4) was 11 seconds and a successful in-bounds pass away from handing No. 7 Villanova (11-0) its first loss of the season, but it fumbled away a five-point lead and the big plays never came in a 82-77 overtime loss to the Wildcats at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon in front of 18,369.

The Orange almost edged the Wildcats with a near-flawless start and escape act at the finish, but Villanova’s closing punch was big enough enough to erase a first half in which SU shot 63 percent from the field and built a 12-point halftime lead.

“They’re one of the best teams we’ll play this year,” Cooney said. “… If we play like that we’re not going to lose a lot of games.”

In the first half, the Orange shot 17-of-27 from the floor, 4-of-6 from 3 and assisted on 13 of its 17 field goals. Rakeem Christmas was 5-for-5 from the field for 11 points, and swished in a jumper from the top of the key. Michael Gbinije scored 11 on 5-of-6 shooting. Joseph tallied seven assists and just one turnover, after turning the ball over eight times against Louisiana Tech on Sunday.

But the prolific offense didn’t erase the first-half foul trouble in Syracuse’s front court, and that worsened as the Wildcats mounted a second-half run.

McCullough picked up his fourth foul 12 seconds into the second half and Gbinije tallied his third four seconds later. Suddenly, the Orange’s defense turned tentative while Villanova’s strapped up.

The driving lanes that Joseph and Gbibije frequented in the first half were closed. SU’s guards couldn’t breathe, much less cleanly enter the ball into the paint. When Villanova players went up for layups, Christmas and Gbinije had to resist the temptation to block them and instead move aside.

The Orange had to labor for every shot it took yet was issuing free passes on the other end, and the Wildcats climbed to within four with 4:31 to play.

“I just think they made a lot of tough shots,” SU forward Tyler Roberson said of Villanova’s surge. “A lot of tough shots and a few turnovers, bad turnovers on our end.”

Yet the wheels didn’t fall off. Not yet, at least.

With a blaring blend of “Let’s go Orange” and “Let’s go Nova” chants all but shaking the Wells Fargo Center, Gbinije drove down the left lane and had a layup attempt pinned against the backboard by Josh Hart.

The refs called goaltending and Syracuse’s lead stretched to four.

Then Pinkston drew a Christmas foul and laid the ball in for two. His free throw made it a one-point game. And after Christmas finished a three-point play and Pinkston traveled on the other end, Cooney knifed through the Wildcats defense before finding Gbinije on the baseline before Dylan Ennis fouled him on the way up.

The same team that smugly celebrated throughout the first half now trudged into SU’s final timeout — sweat soaking their orange jerseys, a three-point cushion on the scoreboard and 20 seconds separating them from a win capable of highlighting an up-and-down start to the season.

But that win never came. Syracuse threw away the lead in the final seconds of regulation. The Wildcats tied the game with seconds remaining. Then the hosts had more starters and more left in the tank to outrun the Orange in the extra period.

By the end of the game, McCullough, Christmas and Gbinije were all sitting on the bench with five fouls. Cooney was being spoon fed the ball, despite being blanketed by Hart. By the time Cooney’s last 3-pointer clanged off the rim the Orange trailed by five and didn’t have a fighting chance in a game it once had in hand.

“Going into this game, a lot of people were saying, ‘Oh, you should handle them,’” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “And I said, ‘Syracuse-Villanova has never been anything but what we just saw.’”

Published on December 20, 2014 at 3:58 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse