Syracuse becomes 1st No. 10 seed to advance to Final Four

No. 10 Syracuse keeps on dancing.

Fueled by a torrid 25-4 run in the second half, the Orange knocked off No. 1 Virginia 68-62 to become the first No. 10 seed to advance to the Final Four.

After a brief malaise in which they were held without a field goal for six minutes, the Cavaliers looked to have Jim Boeheim's 2-3 zone solved. Powered by a scorching shooting performance from London Perrantes (who had six threes) Virginia held a comfortable 14-point lead heading into halftime.

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Syracuse, however, shifted to a high-pressure full-court press in the second half, which flipped the game on its head. The Cavaliers thrive in slow, methodical, half-court games, but the Orange's hyper-aggressive traps forced them to rush their offense.

As a result, Virginia managed just 27 points in the second half, and coughed up six turnovers. Prior to Sunday, Virginia was 68-0 under Tony Bennett when leading by double-digits at the half.

On the other end, with the frenetic tempo in their favor, Syracuse was able to capitalize on its advantage in athleticism and speed. The Cavaliers' ordinarily stalwart defense was undone by consistently having to cover in transition, landing several key players in foul trouble.

Syracuse was also helped by the second-half resurgence of Malachi Richardson, who single-handedly turned the game on its head. After managing just two points in the first half, Richardson exploded for 21 in the second frame to finish as the leading scorer for the Orange.

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The end result was utter heartbreak for Bennett and his Cavaliers. Despite leading for a 27-minute stretch bridging the first and second half, his squad wilted in the face of Syracuse's daring pressure to fall short of the Final Four for the 32nd straight season.