Syracuse at home Saturday to meet Pittsburgh

On January 26, 2025By Littum

Syracuse (9-10, 3-5 ACC) returns to JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday for a mating with Pittsburgh (12-6, 3-4 ACC). Tip-off is set to at 1 p.m. 12:30 and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN2.

Setting the scene
Syracuse is back on the dome after falling at Clemson on Wednesday night, 86-72. JJ Starling led orange with 25 points and Eddie Lampkin Jr. Had 14 points and nine rebounds where he was only a table shy for a fifth just double-double. The Orange Outscored Clemson, currently tied to second place in the ACC position, in the second half, 43-38.

Pittsburgh goes out of an overtime loss against Clemson last weekend and falls 78-75 at the Petersen Events Center. Ishmael Legget led Panthers with 18 points and Zack Austin had a team -high seven rebounds. Pittsburgh is currently on a four-match’s losing row with three of the four defeats coming to the current top three teams in the conference position.

Panthers is led by head coach Jeff Capel, who is in his seventh season at the helm of the program. Under Capel, Pittsburgh has won 20-Plus games in each of the last two seasons.

Syracuse-Pittsburgh series
In a series dating back to 1914, Syracuse has a 76-50 lead all the time towards Pittsburgh. Syracuse is 23-14 against Panthers at The Dome, which included an 81-73 home victory last season. Orange also defeated Pittsburgh on the road, 69-68, to finish a seasonal celebration of Panthers by 2023-24.

Pittsburgh is Syracus’s third best known opponent as Saturday marks 127^Th All-time meeting between the teams. The only teams Syracuse have been exposed to more than Pittsburgh is Colgate (176) and Cornell (129).

Welcome back, jj
Starling has picked up where he escaped since he returned from his injury as Syracus’s leading goal scorer has registered double in five of his six appearances since he came along with the set -up. He is an average of 18.2 points per Competition during this time.

In Syracuse’s loss against Clemson, Starling Orange led by 25 points. He went 10-of-16 on field goals and made a season high five 3-Pointers. It was his fourth match with 20-Plus points since returning from an injury.

Starling Average 19 points per Excursion on the campaign. His 38 points from Orange’s double-over-over-victory against Youngstown State were a career high and the second most of any ACC player in a game this season.

Double-double threat
Lampkin Jr., who entered Wednesday’s clash against Clemson, had registered a double-double in four consecutive competitions, but he fell a rebound to expand the strip against the tigers. However, he spoke a team-high nine boards of the competition and added 14 points on a 7-of-12 night from the field.

The double-double line began against Georgia Tech when Lampkin Jr. Had 10 points and 12 boards. The center then matched its season high with 13 rebounds at Boston College and added 10 points in this meeting. An 11-point, 10-bound effort against Louisville extended striped to three games. He expanded the strip to four with 13 points and 11 rebounds versus Notre Dame.

The center leads orange with seven double doubles on the campaign and has collected double -digit rebounds in seven of the last nine games.

Reserve contributions
During the last three games average Syracuse’s bench 26.7 points. Against Tigers on Wednesday, Syracuses Reserves Clemsons, 20-15, led by nine points from Kyle Cuffe Jr. and seven off Jaquan Carlos.

The best scoring effort from Orange Bench in the last three games came against Louisville, where Syracuse got 36 points from its bench. Half of these points came from Chris BellFour 3-Pointers knocked on the way to an 18-point effort.

Crashes the glass
As a team, Syracuse grabs 37.5 rebounds per year. Competition, the fifth most in acc. Orange boasts a Plus-2.7 margin of the season and has registered double-digit offensive boards 11 times on the campaign.

Three different Syracuse players have pulled down 10 or more rebounds in a game this season – Lampkin Jr. (nine times), Donnie Freeman (seven times) and Jyare Davis (once). Lampkin is fourth at the conference in rebounding (8.3 per match) and has double -digit boards of seven of the last nine excursions, while Freeman has hit double in two of his last three appearances.

Scout Pittsburgh
Jaland Lowe is Pittsburgh leading goal scorer this season, as he average 17.3 points per year. Competition. Leggett (16.6) and Cameron Corhen (10.6) Average also in double with Damian Dunn (9.9) close to the back.

Lowe leads the conference in free -throwing percentage of 91 percent. His 103 assists this season rank # 5 in ACC. Lowe and Leggett ranks Nos. 8 and 9 at the conference in points respectively. Match and are also both in the top six in ACC in stealing per. Match.

Pitt has the best free -throwing percentage in ACC of 79 percent. They rank No. 4 in ACC in the scoring with 80.4 points per Match and is No. 3 in field target percentage (47 percent). Panthers Average also the third most blocked shots in ACC and rejects 4.39 trials per Competition.

Freeman, Lampkin Jr
Freeman is one of 20 players to produce the list of the forecast for the 2025 Karl Malone Award, who recognizes the supreme power forward in the division of the Basketball. Freeman, a McDonald’s All-American and the second highest Syracuse recruits in the program history, is one of two freshmen doing this year’s Malone Award monitoring list.
Freeman, who has missed the last five matches due to an injury, has registered six double doubles on the campaign and is an average of 15.3 points over his last nine performance. He has scored 15 or more in six games during this stretch.

Lampkin Jr. is one of 20 candidates on the Forsy season list for 2025 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which goes to the top center of Men’s College Basketball. Lampkin Jr. is in his first year of orange and is an average of 10.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per year. Competition with six double-double.

The list for both prices will be narrowed to 10 at the end of January and then to only five at the end of February. In March, the five finalists at both awards will be presented to Abdul-Jabbar, Malone and Hall of Fame’s selection committee, where the winners will be elected.

Orange fans are encouraged to participate in three rounds of fan voting, presented by Dell Technologies, at hoophallawards.com.

Tickets
Syracuse Lord’s basketball tickets are available online (cuse.com/tickets), by phone (1-888-dometix) and at Dome Box Office (Gate B).

For complete cover of Syracuse -men’s basketball, follow the team on x (@Cuse_MBB) and Instagram (@cuse_MBB).