Syracuse’s last 2 wins showed progress. But Adrian Autry wants blowouts.
Syracuse grabbed its second ACC win of the season by downing Pitt Saturday, but guard Naithan George said maintaining control all game starts with him. Courtesy of Pitt Athletics
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PITTSBURGH — Winning is hard. And Adrian Autry is never one to complain about nabbing a victory. He’ll take them ugly. He’ll take them pretty. He’ll take them every way in between.
But after back-to-back games where Syracuse held a massive second-half lead and watched it dwindle to a two-possession contest in the final few minutes, SU’s third-year head coach knows the Orange aren’t leaving it all out on the floor yet. Even through two straight double-digit Atlantic Coast Conference wins, Autry wants his team to start demolishing opponents from start to finish. Not merely in a few spurts.
“We’ve had two big dips in the last two games,” Autry said. “That’s something we continue to need to work on and address. (Whether it’s) careless turnovers or (when) we lose focus, we got to take care of all that.”
In Syracuse’s (11-5, 2-1 ACC) 83-72 victory over Pittsburgh (7-9, 0-3 ACC) Saturday inside the Petersen Events Center, the Orange allowed an 18-point lead to slip to six points with 6:33 remaining. For many stretches of the contest, SU outclassed Pitt in every facet. It held a 19-4 lead out of the gate and commanded a 64-46 advantage a few minutes into the second half. It had one of its best 3-point shooting days of the season, finishing 10-for-22 from beyond the arc, and stopped the Panthers’ 3-happy offense from doing the same; Pitt went 5-for-26 (19.2%).
The inconsistencies that have plagued the Orange at times showed up late versus the Panthers, however. They turned the ball over eight times in the second half compared to three in the first. They went 2-for-7 from 3-point range in the second after an 8-for-15 start. They only got four points off the bench in the last 20 minutes — all from center Akir Souare.
As Autry put it postgame, the offense “got a little stagnant” late and runs from the opposition begin happening when his players “stop playing defense,” which he says they did at times Saturday.
Syracuse has yet to throttle a Power Four opponent for a wire-to-wire victory this season. Autry yearns for the game the Orange finally put together a complete performance.
“When we have those dips, we gotta focus on defense and not offense,” Autry said.
Still, SU closed the game when it needed to. And did so with authority. Holding a 77-70 lead with less than two minutes left, Orange forward Donnie Freeman — who dropped a team-high 22 points — drilled a pull-up mid-range jumper. On the other end, 6-foot-9 center William Kyle III knocked away a pass from Pitt guard Omari Witherspoon to spur a fast break opportunity that Nate Kingz finished with a driving layup.
The Orange ballooned their advantage to 13 points on a pair of free-throw makes from point guard Naithan George. With 43 seconds left at that point, SU had essentially secured a victory.
Though after Kyle’s wild one-handed putback jam to begin the second half, which sent Syracuse’s bench into a frenzy, it’s hard to believe the game wound up getting that close.
George felt he was part of why the Orange couldn’t stay dominant for 40 minutes. He blamed himself for not taking care of the ball as well as he needed to and said he must improve at “controlling the flow of the game” late in contests. Runs are going to happen from the opponent, but it’s George’s job to ensure Syracuse counters with runs of its own.
“It starts with me,” George said.
“(Pitt) just started hitting shots throughout the game, so that’s bound to happen. I really feel we’re playing good defense,” he added, feeling SU couldn’t replicate its season-high 48-point first-half performance.
Panthers guard Brandin Cummings also scored a game-best 29 points off the bench, another glaring reason why the Orange couldn’t deliver a coveted lopsided win. George gave Cummings his flowers, saying his ability to shoot through traffic and get to the free-throw line made him a dangerous assignment.
“He’s just a tough shot-maker,” George said of Cummings. “And he’s really good at drawing fouls.”
This game had many similarities to SU’s previous win: an 82-72 triumph over Georgia Tech Tuesday. In that game, the Orange saw a 20-point lead evaporate to a tightly-contested six-point margin in the final few minutes. Their offense went through too many cold stretches while their defense got out of whack because of self-inflicted mistakes on the offensive end — much like Saturday’s showing in Pittsburgh.
Yes, Syracuse finished. But the Orange didn’t keep their foot on the gas pedal for the amount of time Autry and his players know they can.
“He’s definitely talked to us about it, highlighting the fact we (need to) stay composed and don’t point fingers,” Kingz said of Autry’s message. “We just rally together, and we just try to neutralize their runs, and I think we did a great job (in the end) of cutting it off.”
There’s lots of time left for Syracuse to evolve into a team that can generate blowouts. After all, the Orange may have to in order to separate themselves from the pack heading into what they hope is a valiant return to the NCAA Tournament. All victories count the same, however, and SU won’t apologize for how it snags them.
