University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
12-19,5-13ACC
Syracuse
15-16,6-12ACC
Panthers Survive Road Overtime Thriller, Earn ACC Tournament Berth
3/7/2026 7:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – With the season on the line and 10 seconds remaining in overtime, Nojus Indrusaitis drove the lane and drew a goaltending call to give Pittsburgh a 71-69 overtime road victory against rival Syracuse inside the JMA Wireless Dome Saturday afternoon. The victory sends Pitt (12-19, 5-13 ACC) to the ACC Tournament as the No. 15 seed, with a first-round game set for Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Charlotte against No. 10 seed Stanford.
Cameron Corhen led the Panthers with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, continuing the best stretch of his career. Barry Dunning, Jr. added 17 points and six rebounds, and Indrusaitis delivered 16 points off the bench — saving his most important basket for the final moments. The game was tied 13 times and saw seven lead changes across 45 minutes of basketball, with Pitt holding the lead for more than 27 minutes of game time.
Pitt seized control early, building the game's first significant lead on a Corhen three-pointer that made it 16-9. The Panthers' advantage grew to nine at 20-11 on a Corhen fadeaway before foul trouble and a three-point shooting slump began to complicate matters. Pitt connected on just 2-of-14 attempts from deep in the first half and committed five turnovers, while Syracuse went a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line and closed the half with a 7-0 run.
A Naithan George three-pointer at the 1:05 mark gave the Orange a 31-28 lead at the break. Despite the deficit, the Panthers led 20-15 on the glass at halftime, including a 7-2 edge in offensive rebounds, with Roman Siulepa grabbing three of those offensive boards in the first 20 minutes.
Siulepa opened the second half with a corner three-pointer, assisted by Damarco Minor, to tie the game at 31-31, and Pitt quickly found its rhythm. After trading baskets in the opening minutes of the half, the Panthers erupted on a 12-0 run that changed the complexion of the game. Indrusaitis, who had battled foul trouble in the first half, sparked the surge with a floating jumper for a 40-35 lead. Minor was fouled shooting a three-pointer and converted all three free throws for a 43-35 advantage. Then Indrusaitis delivered the exclamation point — stealing a Freeman pass, racing the other direction and throwing down a dunk to push the lead to 45-35 and send Syracuse into a timeout. Two possessions later, Indrusaitis drove the lane again for a layup to push the Pitt lead to 49-37, the Panthers' largest advantage of the game.
Syracuse immediately answered with a 10-0 run of its own to pull within two at 49-47 with 7:41 remaining, setting off a gripping final stretch. With Pitt ahead 49-47, Indrusaitis buried a three-pointer to push the lead back to five. Dunning, fouled on a three-point attempt, calmly converted all three free throws for a 55-52 edge, but each time Pitt tried to pull away, the Orange had an answer.
Corhen was a steadying force down the stretch, twice converting key free throws and tying the game at 61-61 with a pair from the line with 2:49 remaining. With 1:37 left and the score 63-62 in Syracuse's favor, Indrusaitis fed Dunning on the wing and the senior knocked down a corner three-pointer to put Pitt back in front at 65-63.
Syracuse's Donnie Freeman answered with both ends of a 1-and-1 to knot the score at 65-65 with 1:08 to play. Neither team could manage a clean look at a winner in the closing seconds, and the teams headed to overtime.
Syracuse struck first in the extra period, but Indrusaitis answered immediately with a driving layup to tie the game at 67-67. After Pitt forced a turnover, Minor converted a baseline jumper off the steal to put the Panthers ahead 69-67 with less than three minutes remaining. The Orange tied the game at 69-69, and the next two minutes were a tense, scoreless standoff.
With 10.2 seconds left and the ball in Pitt's hands, head coach Jeff Capel called timeout to draw up a final play. Indrusaitis got the ball, drove the lane, released a shot — and a goaltending call was assessed on Syracuse, giving Pitt a 71-69 lead with just 4.3 seconds to play. The Orange managed only a desperate half-court heave at the buzzer that was never close, and the Panthers saved their season.
Indrusaitis' heroics capped what was a remarkable afternoon off the bench, finishing 7-of-14 from the field with two steals. Pitt's bench outscored Syracuse's reserves 16-5 on the afternoon. Siulepa contributed seven points and nine rebounds, four on the offensive glass, in 37 minutes.
Minor struggled from the field but made his presence felt in other ways, grabbing eight rebounds and coming up with two steals.
Pitt outrebounded Syracuse 39-34 and dominated in the paint, outscoring the Orange 36-26 in that area and generating 12 second-chance points on 11 offensive rebounds. Despite the difficult night from three-point range, the Panthers shot 61 percent on two-point field goals and won the game on interior toughness and late-game execution.
Saturday marked the 130th all-time meeting between Pitt and Syracuse, one of the most storied rivalries in program history, a natural consequence of more than three decades spent together in the Big East Conference before the two programs reunited as ACC opponents when Pitt joined the league in 2013-14. The Panthers improved to 16-23 all-time at the JMA Wireless Dome with the victory.
As the No. 15 seed in the ACC Tournament, Pitt will face the No. 10 seed Stanford in the first round on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Charlotte. The winner of that game will face No. 7 seed NC State Wednesday.
