Pitt drops Syracuse again

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It all weighed heavily on one thing: Syracuse couldn’t hit a shot in the… SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It all weighed heavily on one thing: Syracuse couldn’t hit a shot in the end; Carl Krauser could.

“The game came down to making a couple 3s,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “And you have to give [Pitt] credit. Krauser made them, we missed them.”

Krauser hit four 3-pointers in Pitt’s 68-64 win last night at the Carrier Dome, but none was more important than his last.

Leaving 47.4 seconds on the clock for the Orange (22-4 overall, 9-3 Big East), Krauser put Pitt (18-4, 8-3) up by four points with a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Krauser’s shot came after Gerry McNamara fired up a 3-pointer from the corner and watched it go in and out.

“I guess God didn’t want that to go in at that time,” said Krauser, who scored 15 points in the contest. “I think it was written that we were supposed to win this game tonight, cause it was inside the basket and it jumped back out. I don’t how that happened … I don’t know. I’m just glad it came out.”

After Krauser’s 3-pointer, Hakim Warrick tried the same shot as McNamara with the same result — in and out. But Craig Forth was in position for the rebound and laid it in, cutting Pitt’s lead to 64-62.

The Orange then turned to their defense, using the full-court press, which they had used earlier in the game with some success, but Pitt moved the ball around after the inbound. It touched every Panther’s hand at least once before Troutman was fouled in the frontcourt.

At the free-throw line, where Troutman spent much of his night (16 of 20 from the charity stripe), he took a deep breath, spun the ball and dribbled three times, spun once more and swished the shot.

“I feel like I’m shooting the free throw better this year,” Troutman said. “I just had confidence, just stepping up and making the free throws.”

He made his second free throw as well, putting the Panthers ahead by four again — this time leaving the Orange with 18.6 seconds.

Warrick made an easy dunk, but Troutman would again push Pitt out in front by the eventual margin of victory, four points, with two more free throws. The win completed a regular season sweep of Syracuse, with Pitt having upset the Orange 76-69 less than three weeks ago.

Antonio Graves, acting like a quarterback, threw a long inbound pass to Troutman, who, upon receiving the pass, was immediately fouled. He knocked down both free throws. Then McNamara watched his desperation 3-pointer fall wide left of the rim.

McNamara finished five-for-21 from the field and made three of 13 from the 3-point line, scoring 16 points. Five of his points, including a steal and a fast layup, helped fuel an 8-1 run that put Syracuse up 58-50 with 6:58 remaining. But he then went on to miss six 3-pointers to end the game. Two Krauser 3-pointers, sandwiching a jump shot by Chris Taft, followed by a Troutman lay-in, tied the game at 60.

The Panthers dominated the boards, pulling down 41 rebounds — as compared to the Orange’s 32 — to help put together the comeback.

“We just didn’t do a good job inside,” Boeheim said.

Both Troutman and Taft finished with double-doubles. Taft, after playing only four minutes in the second half of the Notre Dame game, punched his timecard at 29 minutes last night, with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Troutman also pulled down 10 rebounds, to go along with his 20 points.

“Where do you start with Chevy? He was attacking the basket,” head coach Jamie Dixon said, joking later, “I feel like I’ve given this speech before.”

And he has. This is Troutman’s 10th double-double of his career and sixth of this season. Troutman said after the game that he felt he was allowed to be more physical last night.

“I felt like the referees let us play a little bit more than in the past meetings we had with Syracuse,” he said.

Pitt’s physical play helped hold the Orange to 37.7 percent shooting from the field, making it three straight games in which Pitt’s opponents have shot less than 41 percent.

The Panthers will travel to Villanova on Sunday for a 1:30 p.m. tip-off. No. 25 Villanova (13-5) has snuck into the polls, and already upset then-No. 2 Kansas this season, but Krauser insists that his team will be the one doing the sneaking this season.

“It’s hard to come [to Syracuse] and get a win. Not too many people do it,” he said. “So as long as we all just stick together, everything is going to be fine. We’re going to go a long way this season. We’re going to sneak up on some people. A lot of people aren’t giving us the respect that we deserve, and that’s what we like.”