With its NCAA Tournament hopes slipping away, Pitt turned to its senior leader and James Robinson delivered.
Robinson broke open a tie game with a steal and a layup with just over a minute left and gave the Panthers a cushion with a jumper in the lane with 22 seconds left as Pitt advanced in the ACC Tournament with a 72-71 victory over Syracuse.
With the win Pitt advances to the quarterfinals where No. 1 seed North Carolina awaits. They also likely all but punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament with the victory.
After the game was delayed 13 minutes because of shot-clock malfunctions, Pitt (21-10) came back from a cold-shooting start and took over. Pitt started 5-for-14 from the floor, including 0 for 5 from 3-point territory.
Cameron Johnson caught fire, scoring eight consecutive points to get Pitt back in the game.
The Panthers led by as many as 14 in the second half but the Orange put together a 14-2 late run to tie the game at 68. Syracuse switched to pressure and the Panthers couldn’t handle it as they let the Orange right back into the game.
A Ryan Luther turnover led to a Michael Gbinije layup with 1:58 left to tie the game, but Robinson intercepted pass intended for Gbinije and took it coast to coast to give the Panthers a lead back.
Gbinije canned a three-pointer to pull the Orange within one at 72-71 with 18 seconds left. Sheldon Jeter left the door open for Syracuse when he missed the front end of a one-and-one with just over six seconds remaining.
But after a Syracuse timeout, Trevor Cooney’s three-point attempt was off the mark as Pitt escaped with a win.
The Panthers were led in scoring by Johnson, who came off the bench to score 24 points.
Luther (13), Robinson (12) and Artis (10) were all in double figures for Pitt.
Gbinije (24) led the Orange in scoring.
With the win, the Panthers put an end to an eight-game skid in the month of March dating back to their victory in the NCAA Tournament in 2014.
Bench Production- Syracuse led by as many as 10 in the first half before Jamie Dixon called a timeout. After the timeout Pitt stepped it up defensively and closed the first half on a 13-6 run, which saw the Panthers take a 31-29 lead into the locker room.
A big part of the change in momentum was the Panthers bench, more particularly Luther and Johnson.
The duo combined for 18 first-half points, 12 belonging to Johnson, as Pitt started to find its rhythm offensively.
Johnson knocked down a couple of three’s in the first half, while Luther did a very good job of finding the soft spots in the Syracuse zone.
Overall, the duo combined for 37 points as the Pitt bench outscored that of Syracuse 39-10.
Magic Number: It seems like Pitt just needs to focus on scoring 70 points. When they do, they are now 20-0 on the season.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
