PHILADELPHIA — Eric Devendorf looked longingly at the scoreboard with 40 seconds left, his hands on his hips and Boeheim’s Army trailing by seven. He mouthed to Willie Deane, “We gotta go,” as Deane stood waiting for a foul shot to go up, as Devendorf motioned to the other end of the court with a tilt of his head.

The Syracuse alumni found themselves needing a jolt in transition, but it was too late. The Pittsburgh alumni had already dealt the nail in the coffin to Boeheim’s Army, just like Jamie Dixon’s teams have done to Jim Boeheim’s so often as of late.

This time, it was a bombardment from deep that did in the same Syracuse players who know all too well what it’s like to come oh-so-close only to lose to a scrappy Pittsburgh team. Jermaine Dixon and Antonio Graves each hit 4 3-pointers, accounting for a combined 34 points in total, in an eventual 91-84 win for the third-seeded Untouchables against No. 2 seed Boeheim’s Army in The Basketball Tournament’s Round of 16.

The Pitt alumni made 13 3s in all, over twice as many as the Syracuse alumni, and Boeheim’s Army saw its hopes at the grand prize dashed for a second summer in a row.

“Thirteen 3s, 39 points,” Brandon Triche said, “…which is, uh, pretty bad.”

The Untouchables jumped out to a double-digit lead courtesy of Graves and Dixon, who each hit a pair from beyond the arc in the opening minutes while Boeheim’s Army went cold from the 3-point line and the charity stripe. After passing the ball on one possession, Deane barked “You gotta screen, bro!” at a teammate.

It was the typical frustration to start that has been synonymous with Syracuse-Pitt matchups in recent years (the Panthers have taken the last five matchups). This one too, even in July, hardly lacked the luster of a conference tilt. The Pitt alumni coach got down to a knee and smacked the floor after an errant pass. Then Dixon stared down the Boeheim’s Army bench and pointed at it after hitting a 3.

“We didn’t expect Dixon to score probably 25 points,” Triche said. “We should’ve been able to key on him a lot earlier.”

The Syracuse alumni were able to slice the deficit in two before the break, though, as points on three straight possessions to end the half made it 40-34.

It seemed like the second half would start the same as the first when Dixon hit a 3 on his first possession, but Deane responded with one of his own and Boeheim’s Army went on a 7-0 run to take a 46-45 lead on a Darryl Watkins fastbreak dunk.

But The Untouchables got hot again and a bevvy of missed layups sent the Orange alumni into a nine-point deficit with under 10 minutes to play. During a timeout with 6:51 left and the deficit now seven for Boeheim’s Army, a scream of “Finish!” came from the Pitt huddle. Boeheim’s Army had hung around all night but never disappeared. Now they were starting to fade, with The Untouchables seeming just that as their supporting cast got in on the fun from long range as well.

“I think most of the teams left in the tournament would definitely be intimidated playing against our zone,” Boeheim’s Army GM Kevin Belbey said, “…the amount of length we have and we’re not just picking it up and playing it as a gimmick.

But Pittsburgh knows exactly how to beat the zone, using a crisp inside-out approach that often left Boeheim’s Army players dashing out from the low block with an outstretched hand in the air.

Devendorf did his best to keep Boeheim’s Army alive for the $2 million, hitting a 3, an and-one, a handful of free throws and taking a charge and forcing a steal on the defensive end down the stretch. Hakim Warrick even made it three straight games with a highlight-reel dunk that cut the deficit to five with 58 seconds left, prompting a timeout from the Pitt side.

But in the end, this Syracuse-Pitt matchup ended just like the last five.

“They made some tough shots but I told these guys I didn’t think our energy level, in the zone, even man-to-man, was great consistently enough,” Boeheim’s Army coach Ryan Blackwell said. “That’s the big thing, they hit shots.”

Published on July 21, 2016 at 9:07 pm

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman