Troutman rallies to slam dunk Syracuse

Chevon Troutman went in for a layup with five minutes and 15 seconds left in Saturday night’s… Chevon Troutman went in for a layup with five minutes and 15 seconds left in Saturday night’s game and was fouled hard by Syracuse’s Darryl Watkins.

But as he slid backwards across the floor and the crowd gasped, all the senior could do was pump his fist and smile. His team was already up nine and on its way to a 76-69 comeback win over No. 4 Syracuse, Pitt’s second straight rally against a ranked opponent — UConn being the previous victim, seven days prior to Syracuse.

“We had something to do out there,” said point guard Carl Krauser, who scored all of his 19 points in the second half. “We had to protect our house and get the win.”

Threatening to launch the first ever two-game winning streak in the Petersen Events Center, Syracuse (20-2, 7-1 Big East) raced to an early 17-point lead, putting the Panthers’ backs against the wall for the second straight game. Pitt trailed UConn by 17 last Saturday before rallying to win, 76-66.

Much like the Huskies did last week, the Orange ran into similar problems trying to put away Jamie Dixon’s team. Those problems consisted of the need to battle against a vaunted 2-3 zone, improved 3-point shooting performance and Chevon Troutman, a man who has given thrown a number of teams into fits throughout the past three seasons.

The senior scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half, including three put-backs during a 13-0 run that propelled the Panthers (14-3, 4-2) to a 51-44 lead with less than eight minutes to go. Troutman pulled down six of Pitt’s 18 offensive rebounds and nine of the team’s 39 on the night — 11 more than Syracuse was able to produce.

“The big thing was rebounding,” Dixon said. “We hurt them on the boards, and we tried to win the battle of the boards, as always.”

“[Troutman] got a couple of offensive rebounds at the end,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “We extended out and we didn’t do a good job on the boards when they started to make a couple of 3s. We extended a little bit, maybe more than we should have. We got caught going to the board in a couple of situations.”

Syracuse cut the Pitt lead to 51-46 on two free throws by Hakim Warrick with 7:28 to play. Krauser immediately buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key, his third 3 of the half on five attempts. Pitt as a team hit nine 3-pointers on a season-high 24 attempts.

From there on, it was a free-throw contest between two of the league’s worst, but the Panthers made 21 of 27 to close the game out. In the second half, the Panthers made 16 of 18 attempts, including 12 in a row at one point to keep the Orange at bay.

“We just wanted to get together as a team and come out with a win,” Krauser said.

Behind guard Gerry McNamara, the Orange raced to a 22-5 lead, holding Pitt to only one field goal in the first 10 minutes. McNamara, who scored a game-high 26 points on the strength of five 3-pointers, capped the run by assisting a pair of fast-break dunks by Terrence Roberts.

Gradually, the Panthers picked at Syracuse’s lead behind the change to a 2-3 zone defense. Krauser began the run by driving the length of the court, drawing two Orange defenders and delivering a behind-the-back bounce pass to Chris Taft. The sophomore went up and slammed the ball while being fouled, producing the first of his eight points on the night and the first of Krauser’s nine assists.

Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon came off the bench to score Pitt’s next seven points. Troutman’s first two field goals of the second half and a Levon Kendall 3-pointer brought the Panthers closer to the Orange, putting the score at 31-25. Syracuse held a 34-29 lead going into the half, but started to show frustration with Pitt’s zone.

“We were hoping they would play zone,” Boeheim said. “We got what we wanted. We just didn’t play very well. I just think — offensively — we didn’t play well enough to win a road game.”

Syracuse’s struggles with the zone carried into the second half. Pitt tied the game at 38 on a 3-pointer by Krauser, but Syracuse scored the next six to claim a 44-38 lead with 13:54 remaining. However, the Orange wouldn’t score at all in the next six minutes and wouldn’t register another field goal until the 5:26 mark, and by that point, Pitt had already seized an 11-point lead.

“The disappointing thing in this game is what we play against the zone every day in practice,” Boeheim said of his team, who shot 35.7 percent in the second half, with most of the points coming with the game no longer in doubt. “When we got shots, we got pretty good looks; we didn’t convert them. When you don’t make shots against the zone, you’re going to struggle.”

McNamara and Warrick combined for 51 points, but no other Syracuse player scored more than four points. Seven Panthers scored at least six points on the night, led by Krauser’s 19. Kendall scored nine points in his first career start and Benjamin, playing at full strength for the first time after recovering from an ankle injury, scored a career-high 10, including two 3-pointers.

“It was just a great performance for us coming back,” Dixon said, complimenting several of his younger players for stepping up. “Chevy, Aaron [Gray] stepped up. So many guys stepped up. A great sign for our young guys.”

Pitt returns to action tonight against Providence (9-10, 0-6) at 9 p.m. in the Petersen Events Center.