WASHINGTON — Cody Zeller sat at his locker after Wednesday’s practice session getting peppered with the same question over and over: How would Indiana handle Syracuse’s famed 2-3 zone?
The Indiana center voiced concern about facing the defense, citing the Hoosiers’ lack of experience going up against a similar scheme this season. Question after question, Zeller wouldn’t, or couldn’t, say how Indiana would attack it.
Thursday night, it was obvious — the Hoosiers had no answers.
Syracuse’s superior size and strength smothered the Big Ten champs from the start of last night’s East Region semifinal and never relented, forcing 19 turnovers, blocking 10 shots and holding top-seeded Indiana to 33.3 percent shooting from the field, in a 61-50 upset at the Verizon Center.
The fourth-seeded Orange (29-9) will meet third-seeded Marquette Saturday with an opportunity to advance to their first Final Four since Carmelo Anthony led the team to the 2003 national championship. Syracuse lost the lone meeting this season against the conference foe, 74-71, in Milwaukee on Feb. 25.
“Marquette’s a great team, but I’m a firm believer that we can beat them and go to the Final Four,” said guard Michael Carter-Williams, who led the Orange with 24 points. “We got a lot of guys that were here last year, and the veterans showed what it takes to get to the Elite Eight. Now we just got to take it one step further.”
In the first meeting since Keith Smart’s last-second heroics sunk Syracuse in the 1987 title game, Carter-Williams claimed the role of game-changer.
The sophomore shot 9-of-19 from the field, with the 27.9 percent 3-point shooter hitting 3-of-6 beyond the arc, along with five rebounds and four steals, to bust President Barack Obama’s bracket like he had envisioned the day before.
“This is the best he’s played all year,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “He was tremendous. He was the difference in the game on offense, clearly.”
After Indiana opened with a 3-2 lead, Syracuse went on a 9-0 run, propelled by its dominant defense, and never trailed again, taking an 18-point lead, which was trimmed to 34-22 at halftime.
“At first they looked confused and were slowing the ball down, seeing what they could get,” said Syracuse forward James Southerland, who had three blocks and three steals. “We just do a good job of talking out there and recovering if they get penetration, but it’s tough [to go against]. One thing they don’t see is how long we are until they approach our zone.”
Indiana’s Victor Oladipo scored a team-high 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and closed the gap to 38-32 with a 3-pointer with less than 14 minutes remaining. Suddenly, the loss to Louisville, the 16-point collapse in the Big East championship, loomed. How could it not?
But the wound, still fresh, was sufficiently sutured. The lead never got smaller. The lesson had been learned. Finger met trigger.
“We definitely learned from it and luckily we have another tournament to play in and we’re taking advantage of it,” Carter-Williams said. “To beat a great team, you’ve got to keep the pressure on and you can’t let up no matter what. That’s exactly what we did.”
Indiana (29-7) lost in the Sweet 16 for the second straight season after losing its battles on both fronts on offense.
Zeller could have played the game in wet cement, and he wouldn’t have left an imprint on the court. The 7-foot giant was far too gentle, getting pushed around in the paint, his size no match for Syracuse’s strength. He finished with 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
Outside, the Orange limited the third-best 3-point shooting team in the country to 3-of-15 and the third-highest scoring team to its lowest point-total of the season.
“I’m sure the strength and the size of the Syracuse guards had something to do with it,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “We got a little tentative shooting the ball. We prepared for it. It wasn’t meant to be.”
howard.kussoy@nypost.com