For the second time this season, Syracuse defeated Pittsburgh. This time their 69-58 victory came on the road in front of a sparse crowd. Regardless of the attendance, Syracuse put on a show behind the three point line.
“This was the best offensive performance this season,” coach Adrian Autry remarked postgame.
Statistically, they shot over 50 percent from three; their highest number this season. Earlier this season, the Orange struggled from three. Poor shot selection and fundamentals hurt their average.
J.J. Starling, last night’s leading scorer, said postgame that his team has been working to improve in practice.
“We know as a team that we’re more than capable of hitting threes, and in practice we’re making sure that the ball is moving, we’re not taking tough ones and that’s what we did today.”
Seven of the ten players who saw the court scored at least one three pointer. An unlikely contributor was big man Quadir Copeland. Copeland said that he hoped his shot would give others on the team the confidence to keep shooting.
“At the end of the day, I feel like no one has a worst percentage than me so if I’m shooting them then they definitely should be.”
Judah Mintz, another three point scorer, said that seeing his teammates make big buckets is one of the best feelings.
“It means everything. We saw Quadir take a crazy three at the end of the shot clock, J.J. hit a couple, Justin Taylor hitting some on the road was big for us.
Coach Autry also noted that this was Mintz’s “best floor game all year.” Not only did he tally 14 points, but he also chipped in 5 assists, 9 rebounds and two steals.
The offense wasn’t the only thing rolling last night. The Orange’s defensive efforts only allowed two Pittsburgh players to score double-digits. One of those being Pitt’s most talented shooter Blake Hinson.
Coach Autry explained what went into shutting Hinson down.
“When you have high level players like that, you know that they’re going to get shots so you want to make it tough. I thought we did a good job of trying to keep someone in his face.”
The Orange will take on the Miami Hurricanes this Saturday at noon at the JMA Wireless Dome in another ACC Conference match-up.