Pittsburgh went into the 2-3 zone, and on some level, Syracuse shot its hosts out of it.

The Orange also passed and dribbled its way around and through the zone in the middle of the second half on Saturday. And while SU ultimately fell to Pitt, 83-77, albeit with mixed results, Syracuse showed an ability to adapt and score in a variety of ways against the defense it always plays, even with just one of its guards providing a consistent scoring threat.

Trevor Cooney was in the middle of a 25 percent shooting night from the field but the Orange managed to survive the stretch despite having just one in-form shooter, Michael Gbinije on the floor. It’s a problem that Syracuse will likely have to solve again in the stretch run of its season.

Pitt dropped into the zone with about 11:15 left in the game. SU led 57-53, Cooney had been on the bench for the last two-plus minutes with four fouls and the Panthers needed to deny Rakeem Christmas the ball, lighten its own foul trouble and disrupt the pick-and-roll offense that had helped the big man score 16 points.

“You just can’t dribble the ball down and feed it to him,” freshman point guard Kaleb Joseph said. “You have to work the ball around before it initially goes in.”

If a 2-3 zone is working, Joseph said, teams can’t pass directly into the high post. Even if the top of the zone opens up, the ball has to go to the wings before it can get down to Christmas.

The direct high-low plays between Tyler Roberson and Christmas weren’t an option when Pitt went to the zone.

“It limits getting it from the middle so the two wings are your only option,” Joseph said.

Jim Boeheim sent Cooney back into the game with 11:02 remaining — at the first whistle after the Panthers switched out of a man-to-man defense.

The head coach said Pitt had played zone earlier in the year and that he wasn’t surprised when the Panthers went to it.

Christmas said he tried to keep defenders behind him, as he normally would to post up, but also continued looking for the lob. He also ducked into the middle more when his teammates drove, he said.

With 9:04 left in the game, he was whistled for an offensive foul with about five seconds left on the shot clock. But Gbinije hit a right-corner 3 on SU’s next possession to tie the game at 61, and Pitt came out of the zone soon afterward.

“With Cooney out, we were more than thinking of that,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. “… Cooney didn’t get the look, Michael hit a couple 3s, so that was the challenge.”

Published on February 10, 2015 at 12:15 am

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