Pittsburgh 66 - Syracuse 52: Orange Fall Flat Against Panthers

Tyler Lydon came into the game clean shaven -- sans his mustache Rico that was domiciled just above his upper lip. As we send our condolonces (good riddance) to Rico, his depilated upper lip might be a harbinger of better play. Lydon had a tremendous day but Pittsburgh eventually outlasted Syracuse and won 66-52.

Lydon had an incredible offensive performance by scoring 13 first half points including an important three with just 2.5 seconds remaining in the half. That three cut Pittsburgh's lead to two as the Panthers went into the half leading just 30-28.

Lydon's outburst comes in the wake of just a six point performance in a road loss to Louisville. He continued scoring in the second with his most important bucket coming at the 8:42 mark; he connected on a triple that gave Syracuse its first lead since the first half.

He eventually finished with a career-high 21 points, however, not even Lydon's offense could keep Syracuse's sinking ship afloat.The Panthers' ability to crash the offensive glass hurt the Orange in a big way. Like the last meeting, Pittsburgh was able to rebound its missed shots for second chance points. Pittsburgh had 14 offensive rebounds and 12 second chance points -- it out-rebounded the Orange by 19.

Michael Gbinije and Trevor Cooney struggled to get going in this game and Tyler Roberson and Malachi Richardson didn't provide much output either. Gbinije and Cooney finished with 10 points and 3 points respectively while Roberson added 0. Dajuan Coleman led Syracuse in rebounding with 8.

Syracuse moves to 18-10 overall and 8-7 in the conference with the loss. The Orange will now have a week to prepare for NC State who comes to the Dome on February 27th. That game will take place next Saturday at 2 p.m. and will air on the ACC Network.