ORANGE CRUSH(ED)

Pittsburgh and Syracuse met last night at the Peterson Events Center for Big Monday showdown of top 10 teams. Following their first loss of the season over the weekend at Louisville the Panthers are Back to Business in Win over Syracuse as the Orange are Flattened (Post-Standard) by Pitt, 78-60.

After SU grabbed a brief 35-33 lead early in the second-half, Pitt dominated the rest of the way, outscoring the Orange 45-25 to close the game. Sam Young scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half as Young and Pitt are Able to Bounce Back (Tribune-Review).

In his previous three games, Young was just 15-49 from the field, including a 6-20 performance in the 69-63 loss to the Cards on Saturday. Pitt's Young Breaks Mini Slump (Beaver County Times) with a 7-12 performance from the field including two second-half threes that pushed Pitt forward down the stretch.

It was a stark contrast for Pitt from Saturday's game as the Pitt Poster Boys Dominate SU (Post-Standard) with DeJuan Blair scoring 20 points and grabbing 12 rebounds after being limited to just 20 minutes because of fouls at UL. Young rebounded from the 6-20 effort with 22 points and Levance Fields directed the Panther attack with an effecient 15 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, bouncing back from his season-high six turnovers and 3-14 effort against the Cards.

Pitt also locked down the SU perimeter with Jermaine Dixon and Brad Wanamaker making life difficult on SU star Jonny Flynn, limiting Flynn to just two points until the final seven minutes when Pitt already had a substantial lead. Defense Has Dixon at Home (Post-Gazette) in a city known for it (see Steelers, Pittsburgh).

Andy Rautins hit five three's and scored 17 for SU and Flynn finished with 12. In the Big East, there is No Time to Sulk for SU With Cards Up Next (Post-Standard) in another pivotal conference match-up.

Notes:

-SU center Arinze Onuaku was 0-5 from the line and is now 1-14 in his last three games and 6-32 (19%) in Big East play this season. Overall, Onuaku is 29-82 (35%) on the season. He finished with 8 points and 9 rebounds. Onuaku actually shoots twice as better (nation's best 70%) when being guarded from the floor than he does unguarded from the line (35%).

-Paul Harris was issued a technical foul for the third consecutive game. The 'T' also counted as his third foul in the last minutes of the 1st half and Harris never got going in the game, finishing with just 9 points and 5 rebounds in 29 minutes before fouling out.

-Pitt has now beaten SU six of their last seven meetings and 11 of 14. As mentioned on the ESPN telecast, no Big East team has had such a successful run against the Orange since the dominant Hoya teams of the mid-80's.