Pitt shooting goes cold in 2nd half in loss at Syracuse

Pitt’s 77-61 loss inside Syracuse’s Carrier Dome on Tuesday night didn’t end hopes of the Panthers eventually climbing toward respectability.

But the loss sent signals that can be used against Pitt the rest of this season that already includes 10 losses in the first 16 games.

Against a lineup with few sustainable outside shooting threats, a good zone defense — and Syracuse has perhaps the best of the 2-3 variety — can clog the paint area and frustrate ball handlers. And – as coach Jeff Capel likes to say – lead to poor defense on the other end of the court.

That’s what occurred in the second half after Pitt (6-10, 1-4 ACC) shot 50% in the first 20 minutes (13 of 26), led by seven at one point and looked like it might be competitive for the 10th consecutive game.

Nope. The game turned into Pitt’s first loss by a double-digit margin since Nov. 27.

Everything changed in an 11-minute period spanning the two halves (more than one-fourth of the game) when Pitt didn’t score a field goal.

Only seven shots went up in that time – Pitt found it difficult to navigate the tight passing lanes created by Syracuse’s zone – and none found the cords. Overall in the second half, Pitt made only five shots (two by starters) in 21 tries.

Center John Hugley, who scored 32 points Saturday against Boston College, managed only eight points in 28 minutes, with one field goal in six attempts. Asked about it, Capel said, “They played zone.”

“The zone kind of packs the defense in. There’s not a lot of space in there. With our inability to shoot the basketball and make shots from out there, they started packing it in a little bit more. The zone at times can be difficult for post guys to get touches right there near the basket.”

Mouhamadou Gueye, who shared Pitt scoring honors with Jamarius Burton and Femi Odukale (14 each), said it was difficult to find Hugley.

“Even if he was open, sometimes it was hard just to try to make the right pass,” he said. “We know he’s our best offensive threat. Every game, that’s what we try to do to get our offense going.”

Without Hugley, Pitt had few effective options.

Meanwhile, Syracuse (8-8, 2-3) was having no such problems finding holes in the Pitt defense. The Boeheim brothers – Buddy and Jimmy – combined to score 42 points. Buddy was 7 of 13 (5 of 6 on 3-pointers) and finished with 24 points. Jimmy was 6 of 9 (1 of 2) and contributed 18.

“I thought our offense, not being able to make shots and turning the basketball over (13 turnovers) really affected our defense,” Capel said. “We didn’t defend well for the last part of the first half, the whole second half, which led to us really being very poor offensively.

“Learning experience for us. We ran into screens. Our switches weren’t on time when we needed to switch. Our communication wasn’t good so at times we switched and we had two on the ball and we didn’t block out because we had two on the ball. You can’t do that and beat a good team, especially at their place.”

Capel insists that his players talk to each other during breaks in the action. It keeps everyone engaged and allows each player to know what teammates are doing on defense.

That didn’t occur to his satisfaction.

“Usually when you’re talking and you’re connected (on defense), that leads to you talking and being connected on the offensive end as well,” he said. “I just think our inability to make shots affected everything. It affected our confidence. It affected what we did defensively. The energy level wasn’t what it needed to be.”

Pitt won both games against Syracuse last season, but Capel said that was a different time, a different team. For a variety of reasons, the top five scorers from last season aren’t with the team now.

“There were things we could do last year this team cannot do,” Capel said. “I thought we executed well the first half. We have to concentrate on what this team can do. We did it well for a while, but we weren’t able to sustain it.”