Syracuse Basketball senior night spoiled by Pittsburgh Panthers in overtime loss.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. –– March 7th marked the beginning of spring break for Syracuse University students, which is usually an opportunity to go home, reset, and return fresh and better than ever to tackle the remainder of the semester. The Syracuse basketball team had the same opportunity – a get-right game at home against the Pittsburgh Panthers to eliminate them from conference tournament contention and right the ship after four consecutive losses before the ACC tournament.
This game was anything but rejuvenating, with 14 ties and seven lead changes, most of which occurred in the final six minutes of regulation and beyond, extending into overtime. Even with many of the Dome seats left unfilled, those in attendance were treated to a back-and-forth affair that came down to one shot. Syracuse dropped its fifth consecutive game in a 71-69 overtime loss and finish 6-11 in the ACC and under .500 overall at 15-16.
Prior to tip-off, Syracuse celebrated the team’s four seniors: J.J. Starling, Nate Kingz, William Kyle III, and Bryce Zephir. It seemed this game was going to be all about them, as Starling lobbed an alley-oop to Kyle on the first possession of the game. Kyle then had two more dunks for six of Syracuse’s first nine points. The other three came from a Kingz three-pointer. This was the only make from Syracuse’s first seven attempts from deep.
Kingz even alluded to reuniting with Syracuse next season after averaging 12.2 points per game in an Orange uniform this year.
“I’d definitely stay here as long as people want me here still, I would definitely see that as an option for sure,” Kingz said, who is in the process of gaining another year of eligibility from the NCAA. “I just have to see what they say and go from there.”
The seniors were silenced for the majority of the contest, Starling, the Baldwinsville native, who finished 0-for-7 from the floor and scored no points on senior day. He has struggled to get anything going for the last couple of nights, with just four points scored in the last three games.
“The last couple of games, it’s been hard for him to get going. Obviously, teams are defending him a certain way,” Autry added about Starling’s recent struggles. “We tried giving him some looks early, but as the games go on, teams are doing a pretty good job defending him.”
The Orange as a collective had a slow start to either half, starting 4-13 from the floor in the first and 0-5 in the second. Pitt was able to capitalize the second time around, leading by as much as 12 points nearly 30 minutes into the game.
Syracuse was able to will their way back into the game after a Tyler Betsey triple tied it at 52 with six minutes left in regulation. From there, the Orange regained the lead with three to play but could never quite escape the Panthers’ grasp.
The man leading the comeback was Naithan George, who played his best game in a Syracuse uniform, scoring a season-high 26 points – just two points shy of his career best set while at Georgia Tech. He opened overtime with a midrange jumper to notch his 26th, but then committed a crucial turnover midway through the extra frame, leading to a Pitt jumper.
Pitt called a timeout with 10 seconds remaining for one final shot attempt. Kyle committed a goaltending violation on Pitt’s Nojus Indrusaitis, giving the Panthers the lead with four seconds remaining.
“I thought the difference was our late-game execution,” Autry said. “We turned it over twice in overtime, and we had been taking care of the basketball pretty well for the most part.”
There was some speculation that this would be Coach Red’s last home game, as he reflected on his last three seasons with the team and whether he met the “Orange Standard.”
“I can only worry about today,” Autry said. He added, about the different dynamic in college athletics due to NIL and the transfer portal since taking the reigns three seasons ago, “When we had ‘the standard’, we were able to retain and develop and have guys. And every coach is going through that. So getting back to ‘the standard’ is going to be a little bit more challenging than we all thought it would be.”
Donnie Freeman was asked if there was any extra desire to win for Autry today, since it may be his final home game, to which he replied with “next question.” But there was an extra desire to pull one out for the senior leaders on the day they were celebrated.
“I’m just feeling for the seniors, man, like I wanted to win it for them. Like J.J., he’s been here since I got here,” Freeman said. “That’s really all I wanted, honestly, nothing else other than that. If I had zero across the board tonight and we would’ve won for the seniors, I would have been content with that.”
Syracuse will finish the season in the ACC Tournament, where they will face SMU on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. One final chance to potentially earn their spot in the NCAA Tournament – but it will take a playoff win.
“I think we’ve made progress as far as being able to be in games,” Autry said. “That gives me the hope that we can string it together on a neutral site with our guys very motivated to get some things done.”