Pittsburgh surges past Syracuse
PITTSBURGH — Blake Hinson knocked down six 3-pointers and scored 22 points to lead six Pittsburgh shooters into doublefigure scoring as the Panthers put on an offensive show in their final home game, a 9982 win over Syracuse on Saturday night.
Pittsburgh won its 14th home game, its most since the 2015-16 season. After taking a 37-33 lead at intermission, the Panthers scored 62 second-half points and knocked down 11 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.
Pitt (21-8, 14-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) knocked down 16 3-pointers in the game and its three leading 3-point shooters, Hinson, Greg Elliott and Nelly Cummings, became just the second trio in school history to knock down 50 or more 3s. Hinson now has 80 made 3s, Elliott has 70 and Cummings has 51.
Hinson opened the second half by hitting a pair of 3s, Nike Sibande sandwiched a pair of 3s around a thundering dunk and Cummings drained a 3 to put Pitt up by 11, 56-45. Hinson drew a foul from Quadir Copeland with 12:37 left and made a three-pointer the hard way, hitting three straight from the line to make it 61-49.
Elliott hit 5-of-11 from deep and finished with 19 points with three steals. Cummings, Jamarius Burton and Federiko Federiko each contributed 14 points and Sibande contributed 10. Burton grabbed nine rebounds and dished eight assists and Cummings completed a double-double by distributing 13 assists. Pitt hit 16-of-41 from 3-point range and was 19of-22 from the free-throw line.
Benny Willams scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Syracuse (1613, 9-9). Joseph Girard III scored 19 points.