Orange Dominates Pitt, 67-36, on Senior Day

Sunday, February 23

Syracuse, N.Y.

1 p.m.

Syracuse University

20-8, 9-6

Pittsburgh

11-17, 3-11

Team	1	2	F
Pittsburgh	11	25	36
Syracuse	26	41	67

Photo by: Michael J. Okoniewski

2/23/2014 3:07:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

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SYRACUSE, N.Y.—Brianna Butler led the Orange women's basketball team (19-8, 8,6 ACC) to a dominant 67-36 victory against Pittsburgh (11-16, 3-10 ACC) in its final game in the Carrier Dome this season. Butler tallied 16 points and five rebounds, while leading the team in steals with three. Syracuse swept the season series against the Panthers and improved its current win streak to three games.

With this win, the Orange secured a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament on Wednesday, March 5-Sunday, March 9 in Greensboro, N.C.

Seniors Phylesha Bullard, Rachel Coffey, Shakeya Leary and La'Shay Taft played in their last game in the Dome and were honored prior to tipoff.

All four seniors tallied points led by Leary, who finished with seven points and seven rebounds, while Taft had seven points off of two 3-pointers.

"We have a tremendous senior class. Every year they have been here they have had a 20-win season. They are responsible for a lot of wins in this program. I thought that we had very good balance and we got our minutes spread out. Briana Day was phenomenal today, she played really, really tough."

Day scored a career-high 14 points going 5-of-6 from the field. Brittney Sykes rounded out Syracuse's double-digit scorers with 10 points.

Syracuse shot 42.1 percent overall and 39.1 percent from long range while holding the Panthers to just 20.4 percent from the field and 14.8 percent from beyond the arc.

SU capitalized on Pitt's 15 turnovers, scoring 20 points off Panther mistakes. The Orange also tallied 11 points in transition and didn't allow a single fast break basket. Syracuse dominated in the post, outscoring Pitt 24-10 in the paint.

Pitt went without a bucket until the 1:22 mark in the first half when freshman guard Chelsea Welch made a three. The Panthers scored just 11 points in the half, the least of any Syracuse opponent this season. The previous low was against Maine, when the Black Bears scored only 13 points over the first 20 minutes.

The Panthers also set a new low for first-half field goal percentage this season shooting just 4.5 percent. Pitt set the previous record of 16 percent when the two met in mid-January.

Pitt opened up the second half with a quick three, but Brianna Butler answered with an open three. The Orange increased its lead to as many as 34 with 2:02 remaining in the game and never let the Panthers get within less than 12 points.

SU wraps up the regular season at Wake Forest on Sunday, March 2 at 2 p.m.