Page, Troutman lift Pitt past Syracuse
PITTSBURGH – Experienced showed at the Petersen Events Center last night as a veteran Pittsburgh team wore down a young Syracuse team, 73-60. After a close first half, the third-ranked Panthers (4-0, 14-1) pulled away and opened up a double-digit lead in the second half. The Orangemen were not able to keep up, much to the delight of the 12,508 noisy, hometown fans. “When you look at this game, you see that we have a veteran team,” Pittsburgh head coach Ben Howland said. “This was a great win over a younger, but very good team.”
Even more surprising is Pittsburgh point guard Brandin Knight did not score a single point, and center Ontario Lett only added 6 points, but the Panthers had enough fire-power to still get the job done.
“I think their (Pittsburgh) depth really showed this year, because I don’t think they win this game last year with their top player not scoring any points.” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Fortunately, we caught Knight on an off-night, but unfortunately, they still had enough weapons to put the game out of reach.”
The Panthers were led by guard Julius Page, who felt the shooting touch and led all scorers with 25 points. He sunk four three-point shots on eight attempts and 10 field goals on 15 attempts. This was his first game scoring over-20 this season.
“I thought we did a good job of getting the ball down low then passing back outside for the open looks,” Page said. “Anybody on our team can step up, Brandin was off tonight, but fortunately I was able to score some points.”
Scoring points also came easy for forward Chevon Troutman, who added 23 points, all coming down low underneath the basket. Troutman made 10 of his 12 attempts.
“I tried to give the other people a good passing lane in the high post so they could get me the ball,” Troutman said. “I think when I sail along the baseline untouched, I can get into position to score.”
The Panthers started three seniors and two juniors while the Orangemen started one senior, two sophomores and two freshmen, including Gerry McNamara, a freshman, at point guard. He led the Orange in scoring with 19.
“Pitt’s experience really showed tonight,” Boeheim said. “It was one of the differences in the game, along with their tough, physical defense.”
Once again, the Panthers clamped down on their opponent using a staunch defense. They out-rebounded the Orangemen, 35 to 27, and also forced 20 turnovers.
“We turned the ball over too many times, which is just showing our youth playing a tough game on the road,” Boeheim said, “but the Pitt defense also had something to do with that, if they are not the best defensive team in the country, they are close to it.”
The big stir before this game was Pitt’s ability to guard the top freshman in the country, Syracuse forward Carmello Anthony. Pitt guard Jaron Brown took most of the duty and performed admirably. Anthony scored 14 tough points and was held well-below his average, never being a major factor in the game.
“I just tried to stop him from scoring any way I could,” Brown said. “He was a little quicker than I thought he would be, but we were still able to hold him down from really beating us.”
Pittsburgh started the game slow and fell behind early 10-5 six minutes into the game. Syracuse held on to the lead for the next eight minutes, up by as much as seven. The Panthers tied the game at the seven-minute mark on a Chevon Troutman layup.
“I was able to make most of my shots tonight because they were all high-percentage shots,” Troutman said. “Everybody was throwing good inlet passes to me, so it was not hard to convert.”
When Julius Page sailed into the key and laid the ball in, he gave the Panthers their first lead of the game, 24-22. Pittsburgh would never relinquish the lead after that, and entered the locker room at half-time up 34-28.
During the second half, the Panthers played a little short-handed, as center Ontario Lett got into foul trouble and Brandin Knight got his bell rung after running into a Syracuse player on a pick. Pittsburgh was still able to keep the Orangemen at bay and opened up a double-digit lead, 50-40, at the thirteen-minute mark in the second half.
Syracuse then rolled the dice and tried to get back in the game by switching to a full-court press, a tactic that had hurt the Panthers in previous seasons. Pitt ate up the press this game, however, and opened up an even-bigger lead after converting easy transition-baskets.
“Instead of being hurt by the press, we used it to our advantage tonight,” Howland said. “We knew they would eventually press, so we worked on it, and we were able to score almost at will after passing the ball down the court into a depleted defense.”
Pittsburgh’s biggest lead was by 18 points, 72-54, with two minutes left before Syracuse ran off a 6-1 run to end the game.
The Panthers now have a full week off before facing Georgetown at home next Saturday for another noon match-up.
“We’re one-fourth into the Big East schedule and it’s great to be 4-0 in conference right now,” Howland said. “Now we have a full week off before hosting Georgetown, another good team who is not short on athletes and good players, including one of the best big men in the country, in Mike Sweetney.”