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Wednesday, Jan. 19 7:30pm ET
Orangemen dump Pitt, move to 15-0 | |||||
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PITTSBURGH (AP) -- On a deep, talented Syracuse bench, it's often often for coach Jim Boeheim to overlook freshman DeShaun Williams. Not on this night. Not with Williams shooting this way. Williams, scoreless over his last three games, came off the bench for a season-high 23 points to keep Syracuse (No. 5 ESPN/Today, No. 6 AP) close until the unbeaten Orangemen could put away Pittsburgh 82-72 Wednesday night. Williams, who had scored in double digits only twice previously this season, had five 3-pointers while scoring all his points in the first 28 minutes. He had 12 points in his previous six games. "This was about my teammates finding me, and they found me a lot," said Williams, who was averaging 4.6 points. "It's hard when you're coming off the bench. Each night it's a different game, but tonight I was the spark off the bench." It was the second successive game the Orangemen found a hero among their role players. Preston Shumpert had 26 points Sunday in an 80-57 victory over Notre Dame. Williams consistently hit 3-pointers from the right wing over Pittsburgh's zone defense, going 4-of-5 from 3-point range in the first half as Syracuse rallied from several seven-point deficits for a 35-all halftime tie. Williams is the seventh player to lead Syracuse in scoring this season. "It was the first time all season we didn't come out with any defensive intensity," Boeheim said. "We're very fortunate that DeShaun shot the ball the way he did. He's a streaky shooter and we were able to ride him." Etan Thomas and Jason Hart took over after that as Syracuse (15-0, 5-0 Big East) remained the only unbeaten team in Division I, taking the lead for good with a 13-6 run to start the second half. "We forced 20 turnovers, but they made some tough shots," Pitt coach Ben Howland said. "We had a chance to go up by eight or nine at the half, and I was disappointed it ended up tied at halftime. We have not led at the half in over a month, and we need to get over that." Shortly after Tony Bland's 3-pointer -- his only basket of the second half -- made it 68-62, Thomas hit a jumper just to the right of the foul line, restoring Syracuse's six-point lead. Pitt point guard Brandin Knight -- a high school teammate of Williams in New Jersey last season -- split the lane for a left-handed layup for Pitt (8-7, 0-4). But Ryan Blackwell hit a runner off the glass and Hart made two free throws to put Syracuse up by eight at 74-66 with 3:21 to play. Hart went on to score six consecutive Syracuse points down the stretch and finish with 12 points, including two free throws with 1:08 remaining that made it 78-70. Thomas had all but two of his 17 points in a second half in which Syracuse was 14-of-14 from the foul line. The Orangemen finished 15-of-16. Pitt, by contrast, missed four free throws in the second half and was 7-of-15 overall. The Panthers are 33-of-65 at the line in their last four games, all of them losses. Still, the Orangemen were disappointed with their effort, especially with defending national champion Connecticut only two games away. "We have to look at this game and see what's wrong and make sure it doesn't happen again," Thomas said. "We didn't run, we didn't defend, we didn't do anything, really." Shumpert and Blackwell each had 10 points as Syracuse remained unbeaten in Pittsburgh since the 1991-92 season. Ricardo Greer had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Chris Seabrooks had 17 points, but Pittsburgh continued to stumble in conference play, losing its fourth in a row and fifth in six games. Pitt also started 0-4 in the Big East last season under former coach Ralph Willard. "Syracuse didn't take us seriously when they came out for warmups," Greer said. "We worked our hardest to try to beat them. The last couple of games, we haven't played with emotion, so it was good to get some emotion back." All four of the Panthers' conference losses were by double-digit margins. Syracuse is 4-0 on the road since starting the season by winning its first 10 at home. Pitt freshman forward Donatas Zavackas sat out his second successive game for undisclosed disciplinary reasons, and also will miss Saturday's game at Notre Dame. | ALSO SEE Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
AUDIO/VIDEO   DeShaun Williams pushes the rock up the floor.avi: 355 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Jason Hart makes a huge 3-pointer against Pittsburgh.avi: 840 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||