SYRACUSE, N.Y. — From start to finish, the game plan was clear.
Matched up against a long, stingy Syracuse lineup playing head coach Jim Boeheim’s iconic 2-3 zone, Jeff Capel knew better than to allow his team to provide the opposition with chances to create mistakes. Instead, he and his staff kept things simple. When Pitt made a trip down on the offensive end, it had one objective: shoot — and shoot from deep.
“When you’re playing Syracuse, you have to make shots,” Nelly Cummings said. “We all knew that. Going into this game, we were prepared to do just that.”
Heave by heave, the strategy worked. Another sharp shooting night from downtown turned a potential challenging matchup into a victory for the Panthers (9-4, 2-0), who defeated the Orange (8-5, 1-1) by a final of 84-82 on Tuesday evening at JMA Wireless Dome in ACC competition.
“That’s a heck of a win,” Capel said, “to come on the road, to beat a team that was playing very well, having won five straight in pretty convincing fashion.”
Pitt attempted 60 shots from the field against Syracuse in its victory — 32 came from 3-point range. While it wasn’t Pitt’s best shooting performance of the season, 13 makes were enough to get the job done.
A relatively smooth night for Capel’s group became shaky near the end, as the Orange trimmed a 20-point Panther lead to just a single-point deficit with under a minute remaining. However, a pair of big plays by Pitt on each of Syracuse’s final two offensive possessions secured the win.
“I thought we played beautiful basketball for 30 minutes,” Capel said, “and I thought we played tired basketball for the last 10 minutes. But it was beautiful in the end because we’ve been in that situation before, when we needed to get a stop. It happened against VCU, and we weren’t able to get it; it happened against Vanderbilt, and we weren’t able to get it. Tonight, we were able to get two stops.”
The first stop occurred with six seconds remaining, when Blake Hinson, who was defending down low due to limited availability in Pitt’s frontcourt, read a Judah Mintz pass down to the block and came away with a clutch steal. Hinson was there to make a play once again on the final shot attempt of the game, when he and Cummings successfully defended Mintz’s deep 2-point jumper to tie things at the buzzer.
“We let them back in the game, and that’s not what we want to do, clearly,” Hinson said, “but you have to be so blessed, so thankful to be in this position: ACC game, on the road, someone needs to make a play. Thank god I was there to make it. After it was all said and done, it was just so exciting.”
Hinson led the way for the Panthers on the offensive end, as well, scoring a game-high 25 points, along with hauling in a team-best 13 rebounds. Cummings also had a big night for Pitt, directing the charge from the outside where he hit six triples and 22 total points.
Greg Elliott was the third and final Panther to finish scoring in double-figures, tallying 12 points along with seven rebounds.
Key stat: Perhaps the only thing better than Pitt’s shooting Tuesday evening was how it defended against its opponents’ shots. The Panthers once again turned in a strong defensive effort, limiting Syracuse to just 43% from the floor.
Pitt’s perimeter defense, which has been its primary strength all season long, was at its best against the Orange, holding Boeheim’s squad to just six makes on 24 total attempts, with half of those coming in the final minutes of the contest.
Quotable: Following the victory, Cummings could be seen hugging and celebrating with a group of his former teammates from Colgate outside the Pitt locker room. The Panthers’ point guard, of course, transferred to Pitt last offseason to play his final season of eligibility in his hometown at a Power Five program.
When asked if games like Tuesday evening were what he had in mind when he signed up to play ACC basketball, the Midland native smiled and delivered an honest answer with pride.
“This is exactly what I envisioned, man,” Cummings said. “When that game got close and you could hear the roar of the crowd, it was just a different environment. I’m glad we handled it the way we did.”
Up next: The Panthers will take more than a week off for the holiday before returning to action Friday, Dec. 30 at home against North Carolina. The contest, which is scheduled to tip off at noon, will be televised on the ACC Network.
After starting the season as the top-ranked team in the country, the Tar Heels (8-4, 1-1) started off at a sluggish pace, which included a four-game losing skid in late November and early December. North Carolina has since turned things around, entering its contest Wednesday evening against Michigan having won its last three.
Pitt was victorious in its last matchup against the Tar Heels, which took place last season. The Panthers came out on top 76-67 at home on Feb. 16 over the eventual national runners up.
Noah Hiles: nhiles@post-gazette.com and Twitter @_NoahHiles
First Published: December 21, 2022, 4:21 a.m.