Coming into tonight, it was a rough couple of weeks for Syracuse men’s basketball. Losing forward Donnie Freeman for the rest of the year, falling to the worst team in the ACC for the first time in eight years, and winning just one of the last four games. This evening, those struggles continued as SU fell to Pittsburgh 80-69. Coming into the contest the Panthers had lost eight of their last 11 games. Yet, the Orange once again played down to its competition, dropping the season series to Pitt.
Early on, Syracuse got going with a hot start, something it failed to establish all year long. At one point in the first half, SU led 22-6. The fiery run was fueled by the one-two punch of forward Chris Bell and guard JJ Starling. The combo both found double figures in the first stanza, with Bell leading the way with 14. Even head coach Adrian Autry was more than pleased with the squad’s first-half effort, “Offensively, we got a lot of good looks in the second half.”
It truly felt like the Orange were going to continue their first-half dominance. However, things came crashing down in the second 20 for SU. Syracuse held the lead for five minutes of the half before Pitt tied things up for the first time since the start of the game with just around 13 minutes left to go. After that, the Panthers took over aided by a two-minute 10-0 run with just 8 minutes left in the ballgame. Pittsburgh’s dominant second half was highlighted by four double-digit scorers in the contest. Forward Zack Austin and guard Ishmael Leggett led the way with 19 points each, and guard Jaland Lowe in the coattails with 17. For Autry, his squad simply couldn’t keep up with Leggett, “We went under a couple of screens and he (Ish Leggett) buried them.” The three also combined for over a 50% clip from beyond the arc collectively burying the Orange.
While Syracuse had trouble defending, it also didn’t do itself any favors registering 14 turnovers. All those giveaways amassed 17 points off turnovers for the Panthers. The 14 giveaways are the most for SU in a game since playing Duke.
At the end of the day, it comes down to a talent difference between the two sides. SU does not have the dominant three Pitt had tonight, getting outplayed once again. Even with sizeable leads, Syracuse’s talent simply does not equal that of its foes this year.
The 81-69 loss marks the first time SU has allowed 80+ points for a fifth consecutive game since at least 1982. Regardless, for Autry, it’s all about fighting through adversity. “You gotta battle through this stuff. And that’s what we’ll keep doing. It’s not like they’re not trying”.
Syracuse will look to bounce back next Wednesday against NC State. The Orange have the week off ahead of the matchup for the first time since Christmas.
