University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pittsburgh Falls To No. 19 Syracuse, 80-69
2/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Pittsburgh Falls To No. 19 Syracuse, 80-69
2/27/2001
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Allen Griffin had 14 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds and Damone Brown had 21 points and 10 rebounds as No. 19 Syracuse beat Pittsburgh 80-69 Tuesday night.
It was the first triple-double for the senior point guard and it came in his final home game as Syracuse (21-7, 9-6 Big East) took sole possession of second place in the Big East West Division with one game left in the regular season.
Pittsburgh (14-12, 6-9) needed wins here and in its season finale against Virginia Tech to improve its seeding for the Big East tournament, which begins next week.
Syracuse rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat the Panthers 71-66 in early January, a game that helped define the team's character. On this night, the Orangemen built a big early lead and the Panthers couldn't recover.
Preston Shumpert, who scored a season-low eight points in Syracuse's 72-61 loss at Georgetown on Saturday, had 19 points and seven rebounds, and Kueth Duany added 13 points.
Ricardo Greer led the Panthers with 14 points, while Brandin Knight had 12 and Jaron Brown 11.
Syracuse reeled off 17 straight points in the first half to take command, closing the period with a 23-8 rush that did in the Panthers.
After Isaac Hawkins hit a floater in the lane to pull the Panthers within 15-14 with 10:48 to go, Duany began the Syracuse surge with a driving slam dunk with 9:08 left. Duany paced the run with nine points and Griffin had five.
Pitt was held scoreless for nearly six minutes until Greer hit a 3-pointer with 33 seconds left to move the Panthers within 38-22 at halftime.
Syracuse upped the lead to 22 points early in the second half. Damone Brown hit two free throws, nailed a 3-pointer from the right corner, fed Billy Celuck for an easy layin, and then hit a spinning layup in the lane to make it 51-29 with 16:58 to play.
Griffin's 3 midway through the half boosted the lead to 63-36, but the Panthers rallied with a 12-0 run. Zelimir Stevanovic began it with the first of his two 3-pointers and Knight finished it with a three-point play with 9:46 remaining.
And Pitt wasn't dead yet. A runner in the lane and a three-point play by Jaron Brown cut the lead to 66-54 and completed an 18-3 run at 8:36.
But Shumpert hit a 3 and Damone Brown converted a follow shot to put Syracuse back on top 72-58 with 5:24 remaining.
Pitt committed 15 turnovers, 12 in the first half when the Panthers shot just 25.9 percent and were 3-for-13 on 3-pointers.
