Cuse Pulls off a Close One in Madison Square Garden

Cuse Pulls off a Close One in Madison Square Garden

Thursday March 14th Madison Square Garden New York: #19 Syracuse took the victory over #17 Pitt 62-59 in a game that seemed to be over at the end of the first half.

The two teams are rivals, but only met once over the course of the regular season resulting in a 65-55 Pitt win. Going into the Big East Tournament Pitt was the 4 seed in the conference as the Orange were the 5 seed. The Panthers had the first round by where Syracuse had to play the previous day against a resilient Seton Hall team. The rest may have helped Pitt a little, but Syracuse’s first round game was more beneficial.

In a pre game interview Brandon Triche passionately stated. “ We know that this game means a lot to us as a basketball team and as a program, this could very much jump start us to the NCAA Tournament, so we know how important the Big East Tournament is.” Syracuse had struggled towards the end of the regular season, but after this game it was obvious that they were starting to get hot at the right time.

In the first half Pitt did not have the presence of mind to shut down James Southerland as he knocked down 5 three pointers in the first half. Everyone else chipped in with a bucket or two which added up to a grand total of 40 points. The Orange defense was solid in the first half holding Pitt and their explosive offense to 27 points.

As the second half started things were much different. Syracuse did not score for the first 4 minutes and were turning the ball over like crazy. Although the offense was poor the Orangemen defense was still playing very strong only holding Pitt to a couple of buckets. Pitt went on a little bit of a run near the end of the game. With 30 seconds left Syracuse was up by 3 points as Talib Zanna completed and and one, but missed the foul shot. Syracuse would be fouled and ended up holding on for the victory.

Everyone in the Syracuse starting lineup finished with at least 10 points except Rakeem Christmas. Southerland went 6-6 from 3 point range finishing with 20 points. C.J Fair had 13 points with 7 rebounds, Triche scored 12 and Michael Carter- Williams scored 11 points with 7 assists. Baye Keita only scored 4 points, but was a real presence on the defensive end once Christmas fouled out.

The Orange did get their revenge against Pitt because they are truly a better team with more talent. Syracuse is now in the semi finals game against none other than the Georgetown Hoyas. This will be the last game the two will meet as conference rivals before Syracuse moves to the ACC. The Orangemen are 0-2 this season against the Hoyas, but they will be searching for revenge and they will come out with fire.

Baye Keita, center for Syracuse