Pitt peels the Orange in the paint

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — With all the big time talk, and all the big time anticipation for the… SYRACUSE, N.Y. — With all the big time talk, and all the big time anticipation for the showdown between No. 8 Pitt and No. 13 Syracuse, it was appropriate that the game would belong to the big men in the paint.

The top three Pitt scorers heading into Saturday’s battle with Syracuse were Jaron Brown, Carl Krauser and Julius Page. But on Saturday, the leading scorers were Mark McCarroll and Chris Taft with 15 points each, and Chevon Troutman with 12.

“We can all score,” Taft said. “Sometimes the big guys have to help out the guards. Sometimes the guards help us out. It’s a team thing.”

It wasn’t until the second half that the Pitt big men began to wear down the Orangemen. McCarroll scored all 15 of his points in the second half, shooting shots from both the paint as well as two three-pointers. Troutman recorded 11 rebounds to go along with his 12 points.

“McCarroll is real big for us,” Taft said. “He is our spark off the bench.”

At halftime, Pitt held a slim 29-23 lead. The second half was a different story. The combination of Troutman, McCarroll, Taft and Toree Morris scored 33 of the 37 second-halfpoints the Panthers put on the board. Meanwhile, Pitt was able to hold the Orangemen to seven of 27 from the field in the second half.

In the beginning of the second half, the Panthers began extending their lead.

After Brown missed a jumper, Troutman pulled down the board. His shot went off the rim, but was pulled down by Taft who went right back up but missed his shot as well. However, Troutman was right there for another rebound and this time his put-back layup was good, extending the Panthers’ lead to seven.

Both Taft and Troutman were unstoppable all night. They became immovable objects parked underneath the basket, while pulling down everything that came their way.

Craig Forth, Syracuse’s starting center, was held to only three points and two rebounds, and at times seemed to be a boy playing among men underneath the basket.

“Pitt is too strong and too physical for us right now,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “They are a veteran physical team.”

It wasn’t just the offense in the paint providing the spark for the Panthers all night — it was the defense as well. While the Panthers outscored Syracuse in the paint 40-18, Pitt also out-rebounded the Orangemen, 50-36.

“We base our program on rebounding,” Dixon said. “Our defensive rebounding and transition defense was there for 40 minutes today.”

With Troutman and Taft in foul trouble for the majority of the game, off the bench came McCarroll to steal the show. He gave Pitt its first double-digit lead, 41-30, as he brought the house down with a monster dunk.

As the lead for the Panthers kept expanding in the second half, the show time dunks began. On three consecutive possessions, Morris hit a rim-rattling dunk, followed by an alley-oop from Taft to McCarroll.

And on the very next possession, Taft was left all alone and bent the rim to near its breaking point. At this point Pitt took a 54-37 lead and was well on its way to its 19th victory of the year.