Pitt loses 11-point lead, falls to Syracuse 81-73

Before Pitt’s game at Syracuse on Saturday became an 81-73 loss for the Panthers, there were several opportunities to reverse that outcome.

• Start with rebounding. Pitt did far less of that than what was necessary, especially in the second half when the score was tied 61-61 with five minutes to play. Syracuse enjoyed a 25-17 edge off the glass in the game’s final 20 minutes.

• Consider free-throw shooting. Pitt (9-4, 0-2 ACC) missed 9 of 15 in the second half and 13 of 24 overall. No one expects a 100% performance from the freee-throw line, but Pitt’s total of missed shots there was larger than Syracuse’s margin of victory.

“It’s hard enough to win on the road, let alone if you’re going to give up all your opportunities,” Pitt associate head coach Tim O’Toole said on the 93.7 FM postgame show. “Rebounding, we control that. Make free throws, we control that.”

• Then, there’s the element that will haunt coach Jeff Capel and his staff if they can’t get the problem fixed in time for the next game Tuesday against No. 9 North Carolina, the ACC team ranked highest in the Associated Press poll. Pitt wasn’t tough enough to win a difficult road game, especially facing Syracuse (10-3, 1-1) and 20,642 in attendance at the JMA Wireless Dome.

O’Toole was blunt in his assessment of the game while speaking on the postgame show.

“We just got pushed around,” he said. “It was a toughness issue. One of the things we have to become better as a team is toughs.”

Syracuse scored 42 points in the paint, even though 7-foot-4, 265-pound starting center Naheem McLeod played only nine minutes. The Orange finished with a 40-39 rebounding edge for the game, but even that slight advantage was enough to agitate O’Toole.

“For us to get outrebounded, it’s going to be something we have to sit with, we’re going to have to see, we’re going to have to figure some things out,” he said. “We got pushed around. There’s no way this can happen ever again.

“For us to get outrebounded, it’s beyond painful.”

The other frustrating aspect of the game that resulted in Pitt’s first loss since Dec. 3 was the fact that the Panthers were ahead 41-30 at the outset of the second half. Yet they allowed Syracuse to take back the lead less than five minutes later.

From there, Pitt fought back behind two of Zack Austin’s three 3-pointers and solid play from freshman guard Jaland Lowe. Both players finished with nine points.

But with the score tied five minutes from the end of the game, Syracuse scored the next eight points to secure the victory.

Before and after that brief rally, the inability to solve Syracuse’s defense that led to 15 turnovers kept Pitt from finding any rhythm on offense. Syracuse scored 16 points off those turnovers.

The game was in clear contrast to recent Pitt/Syracuse games in which the Panthers won five of six against former coach Jim Boeheim’s zone defense.

Under first-year coach Adrian Autry, Syracuse played a tight man-to-man most of the time, limiting Blake Hinson to 11 points, nine short of his average coming into the game.

He missed six of seven 3-pointers after making an ACC-leading 45 in the first 12 games. Adding to his miserable afternoon, Hinson fouled out late in the game.

Bub Carrington led the Panthers with 17 points, also collecting seven rebounds and five assists. But he committed five turnovers from the point guard position and scored only four points in the second half.

Overall, Pitt shot 38.7% (12 of 31) in the second half.

Pitt played strong defense in the first half when it held a 38-30 lead at intermission, but the Panthers allowed an inability to score affect its defensive effort after halftime.

“There’s a lot to learn from this film,” O’Toole said. “You can’t let the offensive end dictate the opposite end of the floor.”