Syracuse Men’s Basketball falls to Pittsburgh 80-69 despite a strong start

By Chloe Smarz | @chloesmarz 

It’s been a theme for SU men’s hoops all season long. The ability to play a full 40 minutes of basketball has been hard to come by. And here in the Steel City, it didn’t get much easier. SU has now dropped three straight games, 80-69 the final here in favor of the Panthers. The Orange played one of their strongest first halves of basketball that we have seen all season, at one point going on a 22 to six run and nailing nine threes in the first half. Panthers only led for nine minutes of this game, but that was all they needed to secure a win. Head coach Adrian Autry addressed the defensive concerns that he has as for why Pitt lit it up offensively.

“We’ve been in those games and then it comes a moment where, you know, you got to get a possession and then we have too many empty possessions late in the second half as well,” said Autry. “And again, it’s not like these are not like difficult turnovers. These are like trying to throw the ball into the post. Like, I don’t get it. I thought Pitt, every time we didn’t do a defensive assignment, they made us pay. That’s what I You know, they got the stops and we couldn’t get them.”

“Just trying to play for 40 minutes total,” said forward Chris Bell. “I mean, the coaches talk about it all the time. It’s just, it’s really up to us on how we play on defense and keeping that energy up.”

“We need to win these next four games and get to the postseason,” Lampkin said. “So I feel like if we do that execute, we need to make a run and just show everybody that we’re not the team that how we’ve been playing and just we’re a better team than we’ve been playing.”

And for the Orange, they won’t get back on the court for another week. They welcome NC State to the JMA Wireless Dome next Wednesday. That game, critical postseason implications. Syracuse is the last team in as of now and NC State is the first team out for the ACC tournament. That tip-off is set for 7 p.m.