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PITTSBURGH, P.A.,— Even Aidan Fisch, who played just 16 minutes prior to Saturday night and was the team manager three years ago, enjoyed a basket. The lineup, the start, the first-half surge. It was different. But the end result remained the same: offensive rebounds, 3-pointers, a questionable defensive performance and a season-high point total.

While the result — another Atlantic Coast Conference loss — remained, the Orange hung with Pittsburgh. Then, in the middle of the second half, the Panthers pulled ahead to a double-digit lead. They started shooting better and locked up Judah Mintz and Joe Girard III, taking advantage of Mounir Hima inside the paint while Jesse Edwards sat on the bench with four fouls.

Then, Hima opened up underneath the basket midway through the second half. He was all alone in the paint, and called Mintz for the ball and his first basket of the afternoon. The feed went up slowly, and Guillermo Diaz Graham spun around, jumped and blocked Hima’s dunk attempt. The Orange were slow to get back on defense, so Nellie Cummings was wide open when he coasted toward the other end of the court and laid in a reverse layup to extend the lead to 71-58.

It wasn’t as bad as the last two games. Syracuse could hang with one of the ACC’s top teams. It could get Edwards going down low and allow him to work around defenders and collect 17 points. But the same defensive issues persisted and came to an ugly head in the middle of the second half, and the Panthers (21-8, 14-4 ACC) used offensive rebounds and 16 3-pointers to down the Orange (16-13, 9-9 ACC) 99-82.

“We are just too young to be consistent and play good defense,” head coach Jim Boeheim said.

Boeheim has been calling out the forward position all season. Whether it was Chris Bell and Benny Williams — who lost his spot in the starting five — not rebounding, the duo not scoring or Justin Taylor and Maliq Brown unable to add in additions off the bench. No one in that unit has scored 10 points over the last two games, and they have watched as Syracuse’s offense has been picked apart by Clemson and Duke. Now, with Edwards getting locked down more underneath the hoop and Girard in a cold spell, the forwards’ lack of production has come under more scrutiny.

After the 18-point loss to Clemson, Boeheim said he felt like he needed to make a change. Williams has been shooting well, and he wanted to play him. He said that it was likely a “one-off” performance and that Georgia Tech will be playing him tighter on Tuesday.

Williams has had a tumultuous second season with Syracuse, though Boeheim said he views Williams as a freshman due to his lack of playing time his first year. After a solid start, including a double digit scoring streak through four of five games in December, Williams fell off, drawing increasingly more ire after games from Boeheim. The tipping point came after his four-point, three-rebound performance in 20 minutes against North Carolina. He got benched against Virginia Tech and took a personal day, missing SU’s game against then-No. 7 Virginia. He contributed sparingly, and saw his minutes increase across the last two games.

“We need somebody else to score,” Boeheim said.

Against the Panthers, Williams got off to a hot start, banging in two 3-pointers and collecting seven rebounds, four of which were on offense. But his defense left men open, and he looked lost while he was out of position guarding Greg Elliot. The Pittsburgh guard was left wide open in the left corner, and after a quick pass over to him, pulled up and drained the shot before Williams could get back.

Syracuse wilted in front of a massive crowd out of the gate at Petersen Events Center looking to exact revenge against Mintz, who decommitted from Pittsburgh, and Boeheim, who called out the Panthers for buying their team. From the start, a missed mid-range shot from Mintz and another miss from Girard beyond the arc, the Orange struggled to get a hold on the game. Mintz threw a ball out of bounds over the head of Taylor, and the Orange kept allowing Pittsburgh to easily grab offensive rebounds, 12 by the end of the first half.

Eight minutes into the first half, Federicko Federicko missed a close-range shot, but the ball quickly bounced out to the left and was easily collected by Blake Hinson. He spun around and tried for a midrange. It was short, but flew back to him, where he — untouched — collected his second straight offensive rebound and tried to roll in a layup. That missed as well, but Federicko was right underneath the basket, jockeying for a good position with Edwards and scoring the putback.

“Those outside shots, they bounce out and land outside of that paint area,” Edwards said. “It’s hard for the zone’s positions to come to that sometimes.”

Pittsburgh, who is one of the best all-around shooting teams in the conference, made 47.1% of its shots from the field and went 16-for-41 beyond the arc. The Orange were giving the Panthers’ shooters plenty of space, especially Hinson as he tried his range from further and further back, but couldn’t muster consistent offense to capitalize on the poor shooting effort. 

Syracuse’s offense has slowly puttered through the last two games, shrinking against Duke and barely keeping up with Clemson as its opponents have taken away the Orange’s inside game. It has struggled mightily, falling toward a one-dimensional offense led by Mintz. But against Pittsburgh, it started spreading out its points and Girard caught fire again, ending the afternoon with 19 points. Mintz went back to facilitating, and Edwards went back to rebounding.

Then the Orange began to settle down, and helped along by 11 points from Williams in the first half and a better penetration inside on Diaz Graham, they pulled even with the Panthers. When Edwards made an ensuing free throw to finish off a 3-point play started with a foul from Graham on a made dunk, Syracuse nabbed its first lead with 9:58 remaining in the first half. Williams, who has seen his minutes increase over the last few games after playing sparingly once he lost his starting spot, was granted plenty of space on 3-pointers.

But even he allowed an offensive rebound when Jamarius Burton leaped over him and grabbed a putback layup. He also was way off on a pass inside to Edwards, leading to a turnover and transition bucket from Hinson, who was left wide open beyond the arc. Girard buried a few 3-pointers that he hasn’t been connecting on over the last few games, but still coughed up three turnovers. Edwards had 17 points and seven rebounds, but had to once again get pulled in the middle of the second half, leaving Hima to fend off the middle of the paint.

“Teams have done a good job moving the ball in the high post and then kicking it out,” Girard said. “We need to do a better job covering that.”

It came so close, yet ended in the same place that it has been for the last week, living on the wrong end of big losses, allowing 90 points for the second straight time, the first time it had done so since 2005-06. It again allowed a flurry of 3-pointers, the third straight time Syracuse let up 13 or more 3s in a game. After Pittsburgh ballooned its lead out to as many as 19 in the second half, the possibility of salvaging the season with a road win against one of the top teams in the conference was gone.

Cummings sped toward a wide-open hoop with two and a half minutes left, then pulled up. Maybe he didn’t want another easy basket helped by slow transition defense from the Orange. He passed up to Burton, who stood at the top of the key and relished in the deafening cheers and standing ovation. Then, he kicked down to an uncovered Elliot, who fittingly ended the series with a wide-open 3.

“You can’t stop people from shooting,” Mintz said. “You can be there all you want, but if a team makes up their mind like they did today, you’re not going to stop them.”

Published on February 25, 2023 at 7:29 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt