John Gillon heard a player on the Pittsburgh bench call him “a bum.” Then Gillon caught a pass on the left wing from Tyler Lydon and hit a 3-pointer to put Syracuse up by 26, just 13 minutes into the game.

He turned toward the Panthers’ bench and stared. Gillon didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. His play did the talking.

“I was just looking to see who it was,” Gillon said. “I like that though. Nothing serious. I like when people talk to me. It’s fun.”

Gillon’s fun continued as he notched his first double-double of the season with 20 points and 11 assists in Syracuse’s (10-6, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) dominant 77-66 win over Pittsburgh (12-4, 1-2) on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome. In his second straight game as the Orange’s sole point guard, Gillon shined once again and led the Orange to its second straight ACC win after a program-worst five nonconference losses.

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While Gillon has shown an ability to both score at the rim and from deep, he racked up his points on six 3-pointers and two free throws against Pittsburgh.

“One of the big reasons he’s in the game is when (the defense) don’t come up on him, he can make a 3,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “That was, I thought, a huge difference in the game today that he got those shots. And he can make those shots.”

During the Orange’s 30-2 run that broke open the game, Gillon had seven assists and six points. He was at the center of it all, topping his best performance of the season on Wednesday with another best.

Time after time, Gillon was able to drive inside forcing the Pittsburgh defense to collapse. The rest of SU’s offense flowed from there as the Orange hit 51.9 percent from the field.

“John was really, really good in his floor game,” Boeheim said. “Was just about as good as you can get, making plays and controlling the game. I thought he was great.”

Less than three minutes into the second half, Gillon found space in the left corner. Lydon sent him the ball and Gillon sent it through the net. As he ran back on defense, Gillon looked toward the crowd and held out three fingers.

About 11 minutes later, Gillon took a 3 from the right wing and watched the ball clank off the back of the rim, soar straight into the air and come back down through the basket. He turned toward the SU bench and shrugged with his hands out at his side. The Orange was cruising, up by 22 with six minutes left.

“They’re backing off of me because they’re scared of me to go by them,” Gillon said. “I’m getting easy shots right there. I can make those.”

Earlier in the season, the fifth-year grad transfer said he wanted to emerge more as a scorer. Throughout most of the year, his points per game have hovered around nine. Entering Saturday, he only scored more than 20 points once, which occurred in a blowout win over Boston University.

After he scored just five points and three missed 3s against St. John’s on Dec. 21, Gillon said, “They need me to score so I gotta figure out a way to do it.”

He’s spent more time working on his jump shot, his biggest weakness, in order for it to complement his swift driving ability. With Pittsburgh aware of that, the Panthers gave him space on the perimeter and Gillon made them pay.

Boeheim and his players have preached throughout the year that acclimating to Syracuse would take time. And 16 games into the year, and his Syracuse career, Gillon’s play is finally coming around.

“Now that he knows what he’s supposed to do, he knows what his job is, he doesn’t have to second-guess his instincts now,” Andrew White said. “And I think that gives him an opportunity to just go out and play ball.”

Published on January 7, 2017 at 4:16 pm

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