PITTSBURGH — Make that five ACC losses in Pitt’s first six tries.
On Tuesday night, Jeff Capel’s Panthers took another embarrassing loss in conference play, this time on their home court. Syracuse, for the second time this season, shut down Pitt’s leading scorers en route to a dominant 69-58 win in front of Pitt’s home crowd.
Despite a strong 16-point second half showing from freshman guard Jaland Lowe, Pitt could not dig itself out of the massive hole that it built up in the first frame, eventually falling to Syracuse for the second time this season.
Pitt started the game with a 4-for-8 shooting mark in the first four minutes, headlined by two early buckets from Blake Hinson. His second, set up by a Lowe drive-and-kick, was a three pointer that tied the game at seven. After a few more minutes passed, Pitt’s Ishmael Leggett came in off the bench and delivered five quick points, hitting a crafty layup and a wide-open three.
Both teams continued to trade buckets over the next stretch, as Leggett hit another open three to start three for three from the field. Pitt led 20-19 with ten minutes to go, but the Panthers then went on a brutal scoreless streak while Syracuse piled on.
The Orange ended the first half on a 23-6 run, spanning the final 9:54 of the half. Pitt’s only field goals in that span were two Will Jeffress layups. At the half, Syracuse had built up a 37-26 lead behind ten points from Chris Bell, seven from Judah Mintz, and six from Quadir Copeland.
In the second half, JJ Starling opened the frame with a wide open three pointer, building the lead up to 14 in the first 30 seconds of play. Hinson stepped into a three pointer a minute later, injecting some life back into the Petersen Events Center.
In the following minutes, Pitt’s Zack Austin hit his second and-one layup of the game, however, Copeland answered shortly after with a smooth layup.
Frustration began to increase among the Panthers, and after a loose ball was recovered by a Syracuse player, several Panthers appeared to scrap for the ball, causing a scuffle between the two teams. Offsetting technical fouls were assessed to Hinson and Syracuse’s Benny Williams as the Orange led 49-36.
Syracuse hit three of its first four three-point attempts in the second half, as Justin Taylor, JJ Starling, and Copeland all sank from outside in the first ten minutes of the frame. Pitt began the second half shooting just 30% from the field in the first ten minutes of the frame.
Trailing by 16 with less than nine minutes to play, Hinson hit his second field goal of the half, an and-one layup. However, Starling responded on the other end, draining a fadeaway two to, once again, kill all of the Panthers’ momentum.
Lowe hit his sixth field goal of the second half — an and-one layup — with more than six minutes to play. The layup gave the freshman guard his 16th and 17th points of the game, and with the free throw, cut Syracuse’s lead down to ten. However, one more time, for good measure, Syracuse answered. Starling hit yet another two pointer, giving ‘Cuse a 12-point margin.
After Lowe repeated his earlier actions with another tough layup, Pitt cut the lead down to nine with 3:43 to play. However, down the stretch, Syracuse closed out the win, 69-58.
Lowe had the best game of his young collegiate career on Tuesday, leading the Panthers with 20 points on 8-for-15 shooting in his third start of the season. Behind Lowe, Hinson hit just four of his 17 attempts from the field and 2 of his 11 attempts from three-point range to finish with 12 points. Starting guard Bub Carrington struggled in this one, finishing 0 for 10 from the field and 0 for 7 from three in the loss.
For Syracuse, Starling led with 17 points, while Mintz added 14 and Bell finished with ten.
With the loss, Pitt falls to 10-7 on the season and 1-5 in the ACC, while Syracuse sweeps the season series against the Panthers and improves to 12-5 overall and 3-3 in ACC play.
Pitt will continue its season on Saturday against No. 7 Duke. The Blue Devils dominated Pitt just last week, winning 75-53 at the Petersen Events Center. The game will tip off at 8 p.m. on ACC Network live from Cameron Indoor Stadium.
