Pitt only held one lead against Syracuse on Wednesday - the final one. The Panthers stormed back from multiple double digit deficits to defeat Syracuse 63-60 to improve to 6-2 on the season and 2-1 in ACC play.

Pitt junior forward Au’Diese Toney tipped-in a missed shot with :8 seconds left to give Pitt a 61-60 advantage. Following a steal, Pitt guard Xavier Johnson calmly buried two free throws to set the final score.

The win snaps a seven-game losing streak to the Orange and it is Pitt's first victory in the Carrier Dome since February 20, 2016. Wednesday’s win over Syracuse marks Pitt’s largest road comeback victory in program history. Pitt trailed by 14 points at halftime, but quickly erased that lead to make it 35-31 moments into the second half.

Syracuse answered.

The Orange built the lead up to 16 points with 11:05 left in the game. Once again, Pitt clawed back, but when Syracuse led 55-44 with 6:12 remaining, it looked bleak for the Panthers.

The thing was, Pitt had been in that kind of spot earlier this season. The Panthers stunned Northwestern back in December after trailing for the entire game until the final seconds when Justin Champagnie’s dunk gave Pitt its only lead in that game also for a 71-70 win.

Jeff Capel even drew on that game as he addressed his team down that stretch.

“‘What does this remind you of? This is Northwestern all over again and we’re going to win,” Capel recounted about his speech to his team at the final media timeout.

“We know what type of team we are,” Xavier Johnson said following the game. “We always play hard until the end and when they slipped up, they stopped playing for a second and they turned it off and on in the second half we just kept it on going and kept sticking to our plan and kept getting stops and then coming out with a win.”

Pitt has played in games like this in the past. The Panthers have had a penchant for getting down early only to come up short in their comeback bids. In fact, this type of game played out last year when Pitt played at Syracuse.

The Orange had a 14-point lead with seven minutes remaining, but with :33 seconds left Pitt had it down to a three-point game. Syracuse ultimately won the game in 2020, but something changed in Pitt’s win on Wednesday.

“We were in this situation up here last year where we were down,” Capel said. “We didn’t get off to a great start and we kept chipping away and we had a chance. We gave up an offensive rebound and it’s kind of ironic that we won it with an offensive rebound this evening.”

Pitt needs to shoot the ball better, as the the team shot a paltry 21% from the field in the first half. The Panthers also need for Johnson to avoid foul trouble, as he was limited to just five minutes in the first half. Overall, Pitt just needs to get some guys back, healthy, and in the rotation.

Those were all obstacles that the team had to overcome on Wednesday, and for Pitt it started with defense and rebounding. Syracuse came into this game as the highest scoring team in the ACC averaging 83.7 points per game, and Pitt held them to 60 points and 36% shooting. The Panthers also out rebounded Syracuse 49-33.

“That’s what we’ve tried to hang our hat on since I’ve gotten here and the thing we’ve really tried to emphasize this year is the rebounding,” Capel said. “We work at it and I think the guys are starting to understand the importance of it.”

The Pitt team did not pack it in when Syracuse jumped out to multiple big leads on Wednesday. In the past two seasons, and perhaps even earlier this year, a bad break would have slowed this team down and led to it faltering down the stretch. Capel sees growth and maturity from his team, and is starting to see what he has been trying to build at Pitt.

“To be able to come on the road and win, there has to be a level of toughness,” he said. “There has to be a level of maturity. We’re a little bit older and that certainly helps and then guys believe. We’ve tried to establish in our program that we’re going to fight. When I thought of Pittsburgh basketball before I came here when they were really good, it was the toughness, it was the fight - it was that. So we’ve tried to emulate that and we’ve tried to bring that back."