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It’s been an up and down start to Atlantic Coast Conference play for Syracuse. The Orange have won two games in a row just once and sit 11th in the conference standings. Most recently, SU suffered a 14-point loss on the road to Clemson, failing to build off its comeback win over Notre Dame.

The Orange returned to the JMA Wireless Dome to take on Pittsburgh Saturday. The Panthers entered the contest on a four-game losing streak, though all of those defeats came to teams in the top half of the ACC. A win would put Syracuse a half a game above Pitt in the ACC standings while a loss would push it further down into the bottom half.

Syracuse led by one at halftime, but Pitt went 18-of-31 from the floor after the break, while the Orange converted at a 37.8% clip. No Syracuse player recorded more than 16 points, as it dropped its second straight game.

Here are some observations about Syracuse’s (9-11, 3-6 ACC) 77-73 defeat to Pittsburgh (13-6, 4-4 ACC):

Firing away

Syracuse’s shooting struggles are well documented this season. The Orange have hit just 30.9% of their 3s. That number used to sit well below 30%, but SU knocked down 11 3-pointers against Clemson, hitting over 50% of its looks. SU continued its hot shooting from Wednesday into Saturday, hitting its first three 3-pointers.

On what looked like a broken possession, Starling drilled a triple from the top of the arc. The next time down the floor, Starling initiated a pick-and-roll with Jyáre Davis, who banged home another 3. Elijah Moore got in on the action with a corner 3 to put Syracuse in front 13-4 early. Petar Majstorovic even chipped in with a 3 from the wing, which was only his third of the season.

Despite SU’s struggles at points this season, head coach Adrian Autry has never shied away from his team firing away from deep. He wants them to a high volume of 3s, which is why the Orange continued to try their luck from beyond the arc. Yet outside of the first few minutes, they were ice cold from 3. Syracuse missed its last six 3-pointers, including Chris Bell’s attempt in the final seconds which was rejected by Zack Austin.

SU’s cold shooting carried over to the second half. Starling and Moore each knocked down triples, but the Orange started 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. Syracuse kept with it and finished with a co-season-high makes (11) and attempts from deep (32).

Trying to contain Pitt’s guards

Pitts guard tandem of Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett is one of the best in the ACC. The duo combines for 34 points per game and provided Syracuse with a mammoth task to contain them. The Orange had mixed success against them.

Lowe was relatively quiet in the first half with only one field goal, while Leggett was Pitt’s leading scorer with 12. When Pitt’s offense was struggling, it looked to Leggett for instant offense. Lowe got into the lane off dribble penetration before kicking to Leggett for his second 3 of the game to cut SU’s lead down to 28-26 with less than seven minutes left in the half.

Lowe was the aggressor in the second half. He often maneuvered in the paint, looking to get off his defender on his hip before putting up his patented lefty floater. He repeated the action on two straight possessions in the second half, getting fouled on the second for a three-point play. Lowe’s bucket put Pitt up 49-45 with 11:49 remaining.

The sophomore took over down the stretch for Pittt. He scored 17 points in the second half, and Syracuse didn’t have an answer. Each time the Orange threatened to go on a run, Lowe answered.

Lowe finished with a game-high 22 on 8-of-19 shooting from the field, while Leggett had 16 to spearhead Pitt’s victory.

Starling’s absence

Syracuse’s uber-reliance of Starling this season is no secret. He practically kept the Orange from getting the doors blown off them at Clemson with his game-high 25 points. Though Starling picked up two fouls in 90 seconds in the first half, forcing him to sit out the final 11 minutes.

Without Starling, the Orange stayed afloat, though it wasn’t pretty. They were forced to play some wacky lineups and didn’t have much flow to its offense. It forced Syracuse to utilize a scoring-by-committee style. Eight different players scored in the first half, but nobody had more than six points.

Jaquan Carlos initiated the offense from the point guard spot and did his best to keep Syracuse from falling behind. Starling’s absence didn’t prove not to be costly with Syracuse actually outscoting Pitt 15-14 while he was on the bench. Though the Orange only had three field goals in the final eight minutes of the half.

Starling picked up his third foul just over a minute into the second half, but this time Autry kept him in for the next two minutes before eventually substituting him. He returned with 12:58 left and scored 10 more points to bring his points total to a team-high 16.

Back-and-forth second half

With 12:44 remaining, Syracuse and Pitt were deadlocked at 45. Two minutes later, Pitt was in front by eight. Lowe scored a couple of floaters and Syracuse miss four straight shots, as the Panthers jumped out to their biggest lead of the game. A quick five points from Syraucse got the deficit back to three, but Damian Dunn drilled a 3-pointer from the wing as Pitt’s advantage jumped to six.

Austin hit Pitt’s third 3 of the second half to put it up 61-52, though Syracuse continued to battle back. Against Notre Dame last week, Syracuse trailed by eight in the middle portion of the second half before storming back to clinch the comeback win.

SU did its best to muster another comeback in this one. Bell connected from the corner, but Lowe once again answered with a tough fadeaway floater. Lucas Taylor hit a pair of free throws to make it a one possession game again until Austin answered with another 3.

Syracuse seemed to be dead and buried, trailing by five with a minute left, but Bell hit his third 3-pointer to make it a two-point game with 17.7 seconds left. It wouldn’t be enough to get SU over the hump, as Pitt converted its free throws down the stretch.

Published on January 25, 2025 at 2:58 pm

Contact Zak: zakwolf784254@gmail.com | @ZakWolf22