The Cuse Get Rocked in the Carrier Dome

     The 5th ranked Syracuse University Men's Basketball team (13-1) lost their first game of the season, as the Pittsburgh Panthers (12-2) came into the Carrier Dome and controlled the game in the second half to beat the Orange 82-72.  Overall, The Cuse played much better in the first half than they did in the second half, however, they were only able to hold a 30-27 lead at the break even after leading by 10 at one point.  The game was very much back and forth throughout the first half, as every SU run was followed by a Panthers bucket to quiet the crowd.  Foul trouble was a big problem for the Orange in this one, as the Carrier Dome fans were kept silent throughout much of the second half as Wesley Johnson had 4 fouls, while Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson both fouled out.  The foul trouble also fed over to diminish the always consistent scoring attack of the Orange, as the only SU starter in double figures was Wesley Johnson with 19 points.  The one lone bright spot for the Cuse was the bench play, as Scoop Jardine put up 15 points and Kris Joseph added 10, as both players played a lot of minutes in this one.
      This season SU has relied on three point shooting from Rautins, Triche, and Johnson, to put together huge runs and emotionally demoralize their opponents on the offensive end.  Clutch shooting had led SU to be the top scoring team in the Big East at over 86 points per game.  However, The Cuse couldn't hit anything is this one, as the Orange were just 1 for 13 from behind the arc.  Most importantly, towards the end of the game, SU was down 15 points with only minutes remaining in the game, nonetheless, even with Andy Rautins not being in foul trouble, Rautins was sitting on the bench.  What's the deal with that Boeheim?? Therefore, it was up to players with very limited experience in a tough fought Big East battle with conference rival Pitt to try and get the job done with leaders such as Arinze Onuaku and Andy Rautins riding pine.  Any SU fan was desperately hoping for an SU comeback, however, between the lack of SU three pointers and the absolutely no "support" from the referrees, the game seemed to be over with even 3 minutes remaining.
       Hat's off to the Panthers today, as they played very well and deserved the win against SU.  Another point of note was the guard play from the Panthers which was stellar and totally outplayed the Orange, as Ashton Gibbs went 6 of 9 from downtown to put up 24 points, while Jermaine Dixon tossed up 21.  The three point shooting from Pitt was the difference in this one, as the Panthers went 10 of 24, to shoot a solid 41% from out deep.  Furthermore, the physical play of the Panthers was something SU had not seen as much of with their non-conference play earlier on this year.  It's clear SU has had two very tough Big East games already this year to the likes of Seton Hall and Pittsburgh, so it'll be interesting to see how SU bounces back in their next game versus another physical and very fast team in Memphis on January 6th.