Barry Goheen. Khalid El-Amin. Taliek Brown. Scottie Reynolds. Kemba Walker (over Gary McGhee at MSG). Butler and Nasir Robinson. Malcolm Brogdon (10 days ago). Enter Tyler Ennis, Syracuse freshman guard.
Ennis hit a desperation three pointer from over 30 feet from the basket as #1 Syracuse (24-0 overall and 11-0 in the ACC) beat #25 Pitt (20-5 overall and 8-4 in the ACC) 58-56 as time expired at the Pederson Events Center in dramatic fashion.
Like the aforementioned names, Ennis made an uncontested great shot to beat Pitt in a game in which the Panthers mostly outplayed Syracuse to secure the win.
Pitt now falls to 9-1 all-time at the “Pete” against Top 5 opponents since the building opened in 2002.
The Panthers led throughout the game and even out-rebounded the Orange 35-24.
But the Orange simply beat Pitt with superior NBA talent. CJ Fair led the way with 14 points on 6-14 shooting and received tremendous help from future NBA prospects like Tyler Ennis (13 points including 6 for 8 from the line and the game winner), Trevor Cooney (11 points) and Jerami Grant (6 points).
The Orange shot an unreal 84% from the line (16 for 19) but trailed at halftime 27-24.
Pitt got a huge spark from hobbled star center Talib Zanna (16 points including 8 for 9 from the charity stripe), who nearly won the game for the Panthers with two key free throws with 4.4 seconds left.
Naturally, Lamar Patterson once again was brilliant again with 14 points that included 3 for 8 from behind the arc.
But like the ghosts of Pitt’s past, the game was decided by a scoring threat not by a defensive play. The bottom line is in college basketball you need to score down the stretch. You need to put the ball in someone’s hands to take the final shot. That someone was Tyler Ennis tonight. In fact, as a team Syracuse outscored Pitt 10-2 to close out the game based on superior shooting and clutch NBA level-talent.
Pitt is now left with a road game at UNC this Saturday at 1pm EST as their lone high RPI opponent left on the schedule. Lose that and Pitt will not have beaten any teams in the Top 50 of the RPI.