Syracuse Basketball: Elijah Hughes dominates as Orange sweeps Pitt

Syracuse basketball completes the sweep of Pittsburgh thanks to a dominant performance from Elijah Hughes. Here are all the details.

In the first matchup, Syracuse basketball dominated Pittsburgh but allowed things to get uncomfortably close at the end. This time around the Orange got off to a huge lead and kept it that way throughout the contest.

The Panthers did a really nice job bottling up Elijah Hughes in the first game with some stingy defense back in January. We soon found out that lightning wasn’t going to strike twice in the same place in the rematch.

Hughes dominated throughout the game on Wednesday night on the road with a few triple tries, converting from the charity stripe, and getting to the cup. It was also finally cool to see Jim Boeheim use Elijah at the two-guard position which provides a lot of flexibility in the lineup.

The Orange overall seemed to maintain an identity to pound it inside and Pittsburgh simply didn’t have any answers. While on the other side of the coin the 2-3 zone forced the Panthers into a bunch of mistakes and forced them to take bad shots.

Another guy who really stood out was Bourama Sidibe who instead of getting bad fouls actually forced the Panthers into a few charges which was astounding to see.

With all that being said Syracuse cruised to an easy win on the road vs Pittsburgh winning 72-49. The Orange have now won two games in a row and improved to 16-12 on the year with a 9-8 record during ACC play.

Final takeaways:

• In the first half, Buddy Boeheim fell down to the hardwood and was diagnosed with a left ankle sprain. Something to keep an eye on moving forward.
• Elijah Hughes scores 25 points on an 8-of-15 shooting performance.
• Bourama Sidibe scores 13 points, 10 boards, four blocks, and five steals.

Up next for the Orange is a home tilt vs North Carolina. On a normal year, this would prove to be a monumental challenge, but that’s not necessarily the case this season. That game is set for Saturday, February 29 with tip at 4:00 p.m.