Takeaways: Pitt Fumbles Second ACC Game in Rough Loss to Syracuse

If I had told you that Pitt was going to go 10-for-25 from three-point range (40%), force 13 Syracuse turnovers, and receive 17 points, seven rebounds, and five assists from Bub Carrington, would you have thought that Pitt would win or lose the game? Yeah, those are all solid. Given these stats, I think it’d be safe to expect a win. However, several issued plagued the Panthers in their 81-73 loss to Syracuse, one of which being ball security.

HOLD ONTO THE BALL!

Pitt turned the ball over ten times in the first half alone, with three coming from the hands of Carrington and three from Guillermo Diaz-Graham. Pitt still found a way to build up a strong first-half lead (up 8 at the break), but the damage was already done. The Panthers added five more turnovers in the second half, which didn’t help their case when trying to slow down a red-hot Syracuse team led by Quadir Copeland.

The Panthers struggled mightily from the free-throw line, shooting 46% from the stripe — going 11 for 24. Pitt is now shooting 66.6% from the line on the year, good for 295th — yes, 295th — in the nation. Not much else to be said there aside from the fact that Pitt has to be better. Missing that many free throws only made it tougher on the Panthers to climb back in against the Orange and made it near impossible when nine of the misses came in the second half.

ORANGE SHOW ‘EM HOW IT’S DONE

On the other side, Syracuse completely punished Pitt from the free-throw line.

For just the third time all season, Pitt committed 19 fouls — and the Orange dropped 24 points from the free-throw line to make the Panthers pay.

LOWE, AUSTIN PICK UP THE SLACK

While the Panthers offense struggled to take care of the ball and find clean looks in the second half, Pitt looked to two unlikely players for help. Jaland Lowe, the freshman guard out of Houston, stepped up big time. Zack Austin did, too.

Lowe played 17 minutes, scoring nine points and dishing out four assists — all without a single turnover. Lowe scored all nine of his points in the second half, including four of them that came around the 10-minute to eight-minute stretch of the half. In that stretch, he hit a layup on a drive to his left side, stopping a Syracuse run and cutting the deficit down to five. Shortly after, he assisted on a _ bucket to cut the deficit to two. Then, on the next possession, Lowe hit a pull-up mid-range jumper to keep the deficit within one possession with 8:52 to play.

Austin earned the start on Saturday after coming off the bench in Pitt’s recent games, and he made his presence known with a strong outside shooting performance. He went 3 for 3 from three-point land, proving that he still has his range from deep after a slow start to the year from out there. The High Point transfer also grabbed four rebounds and dished out an assist in the loss.

Both Austin and Lowe are going to have to grow up on the fly. We know that they can perform at this level — it’s just a matter of consistency now.

COPELAND, ‘CUSE BENCH STEAL THE SHOW

Coming into the game, it’s safe to assume that the only player that Pitt fans were worried about was former Panther commit Judah Mintz — the Orange’s leading scorer.

However, while Mintz struggled early, Quadir Copeland and the rest of the Orange roster picked up the slack. Copeland got to the line with ease — attempting 15 free throws and making 13. He finished with a team-best 22 points in the game, followed up by Benny Williams and Maliq Brown who each contributed 15. With Williams and Brown converting over 50% of their field goals, combined with Copeland’s timely, frustrating trips to the foul line, the Panthers could not slow down the Orange.