By JEFF DiVERONICA
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony tells it like it is late in the second half of their 63-47 romp over Oklahoma in the NCAA East regional final Sunday. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

ALBANY, N.Y. - Chances like this don't come along too often. The Syracuse Orangemen are young. They have three freshmen and three sophomores in their eight-man rotation, and at times seem oblivious to the grand stage on which they play.

But they understood what they were going after Sunday - a spot in the Final Four - and what a great position they were in, playing 140 miles away from Syracuse in front of an Orange-crazed crowd at Pepsi Arena.

"We're too close," said senior swingman Kueth Duany. "It's an arm's reach away and we've got to grab it. You have to dive on the floor, take a charge, do whatever it takes."

SU took it to Oklahoma, all right.

The third-seeded Orangemen baffled Sooners shooters with their long-reaching, energized zone, out-worked the top seeds on the boards and rode their thoroughbred, freshman sensation Carmelo Anthony, to a convincing 63-47 victory in the NCAA Tournament East Regional final.

Chances like this don't come along too often. "Once in a lifetime," sophomore center Craig Forth said.

And the road doesn't get any easier.

SU (28-6) plays another No. 1 seed from the Big 12 Conference, Southeast Regional champion Texas (26-6) and star point guard T.J. Ford, in Saturday's national semifinals. The Longhorns beat No. 7 Michigan State 85-76 on Sunday to become the only top seed to reach this year's Final Four in New Orleans.

For SU and coach Jim Boeheim, it's a trip back Bourbon Street. SU lost the 1987 NCAA title in the Superdome. The Orangemen are making their fourth Final Four appearance and first since 1996, when Greece Athena's John Wallace powered a surprising fourth-seeded team to college basketball's biggest weekend.

Anthony has been just as dominant.

After three straight slow starts, he burst from the gate and finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds - his 20th double-double. Sophomore forward Hakim Warrick had 13 points and nine rebounds. Freshmen guards Gerry McNamara and Billy Edelin chipped in with nine points each and Duany - the only senior in SU's rotation - added eight points.

"We came out with fire in our eyes," said the 6-foot-8 Anthony, who made 9 of 16 shots and was too much to handle for 6-4 De'Angelo Alexander, 6-5 Ebi Ere and anyone else Oklahoma (27-7) tried on him.

The 6-8, long-armed Warrick was another matchup problem that forced the Sooners into an occasional matchup zone.

"They're a great man-to-man defensive team, one of the best in the country, and they couldn't really deal with those guys," Boeheim said.

SU made sure it got the crowd of 15,207 into the game early. Three minutes in, Duany curled around a Craig Forth pick for a layup and it was 8-3. SU fans roared. Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson called a timeout, but he couldn't halt the Orange crush.

"They did a great job of feeding off their crowd," he said.

Then Anthony got it going, bodying up and over Ere for a layup and spinning past him for a baseline drive.

"When he hit those shots, I knew they wouldn't be able to guard him today," Boeheim said. "That really set the tempo."

SU's 2-3 zone did the rest.

After Oklahoma steadied itself with a 14-6 run for a 17-16 lead on Alexander's 3-pointer, the Sooners imploded. After that basket with 8:54 left in the half, Oklahoma missed 16 of its next 17 shots and turned the ball over eight times in the next 14 minutes.

Its mistakes ranged from bad entry, inbound and skip passes, to shot-clock, traveling and double-dribble violations. The Sooners don't face any zones in the rough-and-tumble Big 12 and it showed. They looked hesitant at times, clueless others.

This from a backcourt regarded as one of the country's best, from a team that reached last year's Final Four before losing in the semis to Indiana.

Big 12 Player of the Year Hollis Price and fellow senior Quannas White, New Orleans natives trying to go home, were awful. They combined to miss 21 of 25 shots.

"You're playing against 6-7 at the top of their zone and 6-7 guys in the post. We've never faced anything like that before," said Price, who was 3-for-17 overall, 2-for-11 from 3-point range for eight points. "They did a great job extending out. We didn't attack it aggressively. It's something we worked on in practice but it just didn't happen in the game." Said Boeheim: "You can't prepare for a good zone by playing in practice against a bad zone." It didn't help that Oklahoma, which also was out-rebounded by a sizable 40-28 margin, had one day to prepare. Its 31 percent shooting (18-for-58) was slightly better than its season-low 27 percent in a loss to Missouri.

Forty-seven points was the Sooners' third-lowest output.

"When we move that well, that quick and that aggressive our zone is good," Boeheim said. "Their strength is their perimeter people and we can guard perimeter people in our zone."

The halftime lead was 30-20 and it peaked at 38-20 on McNamara's baseline 3-pointer. The Sooners actually didn't cut it to single digits the final 22 minutes. They were as close as 47-35 with 8 1/2 minutes remaining, but Jeremy McNeil hit a cutting Edelin for a layup and moments later Edelin penetrated and fed Warrick for a dunk and Warrick dumped a pass to Anthony for a slam.

The party inside Pepsi was on. SU had seized its chance.

"We just go out and play," McNamara said. "We play in the moment and the moment right now is the Final Four."

SYRACUSE (28-5)-Warrick 6-9 1-3 13, Anthony 9-16 1-2 20, Forth 1-3 0-0 2, McNamara 4-10 0-0 9, Duany 3-7 2-4 8, Pace 0-0 0-0 0, Edelin 1-2 7-10 9, McNeil 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 25-48 11-19 63.

OKLAHOMA (27-7)-Alexander 5-9 2-4 14, Gilbert 0-0 0-0 0, Bookout 1-4 0-0 2, White 1-8 0-0 2, Price 3-17 0-0 8, Ere 2-8 3-6 7, Johnston 2-6 0-0 5, Brown 4-6 1-1 9, Szendrei 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-58 6-11 47.

Halftime-Syracuse 30-20. 3-Point Goals-Syracuse 2-12 (Anthony 1-4, McNamara 1-6, Duany 0-2), Oklahoma 5-28 (Alexander 2-5, Price 2-11, Johnston 1-4, Ere 0-4, White 0-4). Fouled out-Alexander. Rebounds-Syracuse 40 (Anthony 10), Oklahoma 28 (Brown 7). Assists-Syracuse 16 (Warrick 4), Oklahoma 10 (Johnston 3). Total fouls-Syracuse 13, Oklahoma 16. A-15,207.