Hinson hits 6 3s, Pittsburgh rolls past Syracuse, 99-82

I thought it before the season. I thought it is. We, you know, got together, we, we all got together, we had our whole team together at the end of august and as I just started watching us when we started workouts practices, you started seeing the camaraderie, just how it organically happened. Start seeing some things on the court, seeing how they wanted to share the basketball, how we wanted to move the ball. Um, but just seeing the connections and you know, we did *** few things, you know, some team building things, team bonding things and just seeing how it organically happened. That's what I thought we had. You know, I thought it probably even more after we got punched in the mouth and we lost those three games and how we came back from that, how we still, that's, that's *** time where it could really become disjointed and in that moment when that didn't happen and we just kind of hunkered down and believed in each other more and worked *** little bit harder. That's when I thought, okay, you know, we we have something and then I, I probably say *** win would be when we went to Northwestern and one, You know, I think northwestern is *** really, really good basketball team and you know, they're in the top half think they're second place in the big 10 had an unbelievable win last night. And when we went there was our first true road game and you started to see just how close you started to see that and it's maybe the best game we've played all year, That's when I knew, okay, this is this is different and we have something here. We have to really, really fight to protect it.

Blake Hinson knocked down six 3-pointers and scored 22 points to lead six Pittsburgh shooters into double-figure scoring as the Panthers put on an offensive show in their final home game, a 99-82 win over Syracuse on Saturday night.Pittsburgh won its 14th home game, its most since the 2015-16 season. After taking a 37-33 lead at intermission, the Panthers scored 62 second-half points and knocked down 11 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.Pitt (21-8, 14-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) knocked down 16 3-pointers in the game and its three leading 3-point shooters, Hinson, Greg Elliott and Nelly Cummings, became just the second trio in school history to knock down 50 or more 3s. Hinson now has 80 made 3s, Elliott has 70 and Cummings has 51.Hinson opened the second half by hitting a pair of 3s, Nike Sibande sandwiched a pair of 3s around a thundering dunk and Cummings drained a 3 to put Pitt up by 11, 56-45. Hinson drew a foul from Quadir Copeland with 12:37 left and made a three-pointer the hard way, hitting three straight from the line to make it 61-49.Elliott hit 5 of 11 from deep and finished with 19 points with three steals. Cummings, Jamarius Burton and Federiko Federiko each contributed 14 points and Sibande contributed 10. Burton grabbed nine rebounds and dished eight assists and Cummings completed a double-double by distributing 13 assists. Pitt hit 16 of 41 from 3-point range and was 19 of 22 from the free-throw line.Benny Willams scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Syracuse (16-13, 9-9). Joe Girard scored 19 points, Jesse Edwards scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and Judah Mintz finished with 16 points and six assists.Pittsburgh finishes its regular season on the road, playing at Notre Dame Wednesday and at No. 13 Miami Saturday. Syracuse finishes its regular season at home, hosting Georgia Tech Tuesday and Wake Forest Saturday.__More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

PITTSBURGH —

Pittsburgh won its 14th home game, its most since the 2015-16 season. After taking a 37-33 lead at intermission, the Panthers scored 62 second-half points and knocked down 11 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes.

Pitt (21-8, 14-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) knocked down 16 3-pointers in the game and its three leading 3-point shooters, Hinson, Greg Elliott and Nelly Cummings, became just the second trio in school history to knock down 50 or more 3s. Hinson now has 80 made 3s, Elliott has 70 and Cummings has 51.

Hinson opened the second half by hitting a pair of 3s, Nike Sibande sandwiched a pair of 3s around a thundering dunk and Cummings drained a 3 to put Pitt up by 11, 56-45. Hinson drew a foul from Quadir Copeland with 12:37 left and made a three-pointer the hard way, hitting three straight from the line to make it 61-49.

Elliott hit 5 of 11 from deep and finished with 19 points with three steals. Cummings, Jamarius Burton and Federiko Federiko each contributed 14 points and Sibande contributed 10. Burton grabbed nine rebounds and dished eight assists and Cummings completed a double-double by distributing 13 assists. Pitt hit 16 of 41 from 3-point range and was 19 of 22 from the free-throw line.

Benny Willams scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Syracuse (16-13, 9-9). Joe Girard scored 19 points, Jesse Edwards scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and Judah Mintz finished with 16 points and six assists.

Pittsburgh finishes its regular season on the road, playing at Notre Dame Wednesday and at No. 13 Miami Saturday. Syracuse finishes its regular season at home, hosting Georgia Tech Tuesday and Wake Forest Saturday.

More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

Hinson hits 6 3s, Pittsburgh rolls past Syracuse, 99-82

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