On its way to its most lopsided loss of the season to that point, a 77-61 setback on Jan. 11 at Syracuse, the Pitt defense looked as vulnerable and hapless as it had all season.
Fourteen days after turning in one of their worst defensive performances of the season, the Panthers notched one of their best — and did so against the opponent that carved them up two weeks earlier.
Pitt held Syracuse to 30.2% shooting overall and 19.4% from 3-point range — including marks of 28.1% and 7.1%, respectively, in a second half in which the Panthers outscored the Orange, 40-25 — to guide it to a 64-53 victory Tuesday night at Petersen Events Center.
“Our guys were really tough. They were really, really tough,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “We had to be physical this game. I didn’t think we were very physical up at Syracuse. We got bumped off a lot. We allowed straight line drives. Up there, our inability in the second half to make a shot really, really affected us on the defensive end. Hopefully, it’s a growth thing. Hopefully, it’s something we understand and learn. Hopefully, we can bottle this up and grow from it and be better the rest of the year.”
For the Panthers (8-12, 3-6 ACC), it was an impressive, quick and sorely-needed turnaround after a 27-point loss at Clemson last Saturday. It was the kind of defeat that, in past years under Capel, has been ominous, a sign that a seemingly unbreakable losing streak to torpedo a season was in its early stages.
At least for one night, they erased those fears.
“It starts at the top, and that's our head coach,” guard Jamarius Burton said. “We feed off his energy. He has a show up mentality regardless if we're winning or losing. We show up each and every day to put the work in. So for us, even after tough losses, it's getting in the gym, putting in the work, looking at film to see where we can make improvements. And I feel like we did that going into this game. We were the hungrier team, and it showed.”
Burton and forward Mouhamadou Gueye led the Panthers in scoring, finishing with 21 and 19 points, respectively. Forward John Hugley and guard Onyebuchi Ezeakudo added 11 points apiece. Ezeakudo’s total was a career high. Hugley and Gueye both had double-doubles, finishing with 18 and 10 rebounds, respectively. The 18 boards were a career high for Hugley, who Capel praised as having one of the best games of his time at Pitt despite scoring four points below his season average.
For all those contributions, and as necessary as the points obviously were, it wasn’t the offense that carried Pitt.
In the first matchup between the teams, Pitt allowed the Orange (9-11, 3-6) to shoot 51% from the field and score 77 points on just 59 possessions. Syracuse, as Capel saw it, bullied his team physically, allowing it to get effectively whatever it wanted.
It wasn’t that way Tuesday.
Gueye was a force down low, using his 7-foot-3 wingspan to block three shots and alter a number of others on a night in which the Orange made just five of its 14 shots at the rim. Ezeakudo played tight, relentless defense on Syracuse guard Joe Girard, who made just one of his nine shots and was forced into six turnovers. Pitt was able to capitalize on those miscues from Girard and others, getting 15 points off 10 Syracuse turnovers and allowing what is normally a subpar offense to get easier scoring opportunities before the Orange’s two-three zone could get set. Girard wasn’t the only Orange player to struggle shooting. Aside from guard Buddy Boeheim, who had a game-high 25 points, Syracuse’s other four starters shot just 10 of 40 from the field and two of 16 from 3.
“The first time we played them, the one thing we saw was that they were way too comfortable,” Ezeakudo said. “They were getting anything they wanted offensively, anywhere they wanted. The biggest goal of this game was to make them uncomfortable. We know they can hit tough shots. But make it as hard as possible.”
It was that defense that allowed Pitt to weather a disastrous start offensively, when it missed 20 of its first 24 shots and twice went at least four minutes without a made field goal. Despite those droughts, though, it only fell so far behind, as its fifth made shot of the night, a fast-break layup from Ezeakudo, got it within six, 21-15, after trailing by as many as 10 earlier in the half.
For Capel, it was a significant step. Throughout the season, and perhaps most notably in the loss at Syracuse two weeks earlier, he had seen his team’s offensive woes affect all other facets of its game. A defense that had been stout would eventually wear down after seeing little to no payoff on the other end of the court. Against the Orange on Tuesday, it kept the game close, trailing by just four at halftime.
“That first game we played them, they didn't feel our presence,” Gueye said. “This game we turned around and knew we had to have an impact on the defensive end. Don't let them get comfortable. On the offensive end, we had time to watch the film. We dissected our own film. We watched and tried to find the dead spots and the holes in the zone that we could attack, those baseline passes. We were being comfortable out there, not playing on our heels. That was a big thing that really helped our success.”
The Pitt team that came out from the locker room was unrecognizable that entered it.
What had been an impotent Panthers offense in the opening 20 minutes drained nine of its first 14 shots and, more remarkably, five of its seven 3s, the final of which, from Gueye, concluded a 12-3 run and gave it a 47-40 lead with 11 minutes remaining. Burton scored 11 of Pitt’s first 23 points of the second half, with Gueye adding seven.
That burst didn’t just help the Panthers seize some momentum and take control of the contest. It was what ultimately won it for them. The Orange didn’t get closer than five for the remainder of the night and trailed by double digits for most of the final four minutes. Over a stretch of nearly 11 minutes in the second half, it missed 11 of its 12 shots.
With the loss, Syracuse now has its worst 20-game start to a season since 1968-69, the season before Jim Boeheim began a coaching tenure at the school that is now in its 53rd year.
“I’m concerned about winning a game,” Boeheim said when asked if he’s concerned about his team missing the NCAA tournament. “Are you kidding me? Do you see anything that looks like a tournament team out there? Do you?”
Pitt will look to follow up on its third conference victory of the season with a game against the team it earned the first of those wins over — Boston College, which the Panthers defeated in their first matchup of the season, 69-67, at Petersen Events Center. A win Saturday in Chestnut Hill, Mass., would give Pitt consecutive ACC regular-season victories for just the third time in Capel’s tenure.
For a team that just secured its eighth victory of a difficult season, it stands as an important opportunity.
“The thing we’re trying to impress upon them and get them to truly understand is how hard it is to win,” Capel said. “It’s hard, especially when you haven’t won. We as a program haven’t won consistently in a while. It’s hard. It’s trying to create the habits that are necessary.”
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG.
First Published: January 26, 2022, 3:13 a.m.
