PHILADELPHIA — Kaleb Joseph was whatever Syracuse needed him to be on Saturday.

He facilitated when the Orange needed to spread the ball and scored when SU needed points. Although the Orange’s seemingly comfortable lead withered away, Joseph turned in a strong bounce-back outing from his eight-turnover performance against Louisiana Tech last Sunday.

In SU’s (6-4) 82-77 overtime loss to No. 7 Villanova (11-0) on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon, Joseph achieved his first collegiate double-double and coordinated an offense that ran more efficiently in the first half than it had all season. And when Syracuse couldn’t keep up its torrid shooting after halftime, Joseph picked up his aggression and led his team in scoring in the second half.

Still, the first-year point guard was disinclined to talk about himself for too long after the game.

“I definitely feel comfortable out there,” said Joseph, who finished with 10 points and 10 assists. “But we’ve just got to keep making plays. You can never be happy when you’re playing highly and then you lose a game.”

For a time, though, he was quite happy — evidenced by his celebratory body language and shouting as Syracuse began its best half of basketball, and as he put his struggles against Louisiana Tech further behind him.

Joseph tallied three assists in the first five minutes before hitting a pull-up jumper from the elbow and grabbing a steal that led to a Tyler Roberson runout dunk.

“I thought he definitely improved, especially from the last couple of games,” forward Michael Gbinije said. “Limited some turnovers down and just made plays. I was proud of him.”

Ahead by five points, Joseph then fed both Gbinije and guard Trevor Cooney in rhythm to connect on 3s and put the Orange up by double digits. The point guard then penetrated the lane and hit Gbinije down low for an and-one, then later whipped from the top for forward Rakeem Christmas’ and-one in the post.

Joseph was credited with the assist on four of five SU buckets and had seven by the break as the Orange shot 63 percent from the field in the first half.

“He had a great week of practice and that’s the way that he needs to play,” Cooney said. “He played like a true point guard and played like we need him to play. He was aggressive. He ran the sets. He can do that every single night and he’s starting to realize that.”

Though the astronomical shooting percentage fell, Joseph did what he could to keep SU’s offense afloat in the second half. His fast-break layup accounted for the Orange’s first two points and as Villanova mounted its comeback, Joseph went right at Wildcats forward Daniel Ochefu and a nifty up-and-under move got the freshman two more points.

Joseph dished out two more assists before sinking a short step-back jumper and a midrange pull-up, but they weren’t enough to hold off Villanova’s resurgence.

In overtime, he fed Gbinije for a finger roll, but the one-by-one dismissal of fouled-out Syracuse players to the bench put the Orange in a hole it couldn’t climb out of.

Down by three in the final 20 seconds, Joseph charged toward the basket on the left side, but VU’s JayVaughn Pinkston stepped up and swatted it away, sending SU’s hopes of recapturing the game with it.

Because of that reason, Syracuse’s floor general refused to take solace in his own personal progress. When asked how he improved individually, Joseph stared blankly for three seconds before shrugging and shaking his head.

“I don’t know.”

Published on December 20, 2014 at 7:18 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb