PITTSBURGH — Jim Boeheim worried about this.

About his Syracuse team’s grit, its moxie underneath the basket. About the Orangemen’s willingness to dive for loose balls and jump high for caroms. About rebounding.

His fears, it seems, are finally coming true. Syracuse lost and lost bad to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, 72-57, in a game during which the Orangemen were outrebounded, 43-18. It followed Tennessee’s 49-27 rebounding advantage in the Orangemen’s 66-62 road loss Saturday.

‘I don’t like to oversimplify things, but the last two games we got crushed on the boards,’ Boeheim said. ‘We were doing a good job. We’ve been rebounding the ball.’

Note Boeheim’s use of past tense. Because it was as bad as the numbers — and Boeheim’s self-criticism — indicate. The 16 offensive boards the Panthers grabbed don’t lie, and neither does the 22-0 advantage Pitt held on second-chance points.

It was a boarding bonanza for the Panthers, who lit up the sellout crowd of 6,798 and should sneak back into the Top 25 after downing the 12th-ranked Orangemen. Guard Jaron Brown, all of 6-foot-4, led the Panthers with 10 rebounds. Donatas Zavackas and Toree Morris added seven apiece.

And for SU? Preston Shumpert took honors, with four.

Mind you, this didn’t come out of nowhere. Only one team, Rutgers, has outrebounded the Panthers this season — and the Scarlet Knights held a 41-40 advantage in Pitt’s win Jan. 8. The Orangemen, meanwhile, rely mainly on swingmen Shumpert and Kueth Duany to scoop up misses.

That presents a dangerous proposition, especially when Pitt feasts on hustle rebounds by Brown and Morris under the hoop. Syracuse centers Craig Forth, Jeremy McNeil and Billy Celuck simply couldn’t keep up with the quicker, stronger Panthers.

‘When they got the ball back (on offensive rebounds), they got it in or back out, and they got another shot,’ Boeheim said. ‘We just can’t win that way.’

Not when the Orangemen, down 54-47 with less than seven minutes remaining, let Zavackas sneak between Celuck and Hakim Warrick to grab an offensive rebound. Not when he kicks it out to Julius Page, who strokes a three-pointer from the left corner. Not when Zavackas misses a three on the next possession, but Brown dives on the floor and outmuscles Celuck for the rebound before coach Ben Howland can call a timeout. Not when that leads to an Ontario Lett three-point play out of the timeout, a 60-49 Pitt advantage and a watermelon-sized bruise to the Orangemen’s chances.

Howland figured SU was vulnerable on the boards. He pointed to the Orangemen’s use of what he deemed a four-guard lineup: Shumpert, Duany, DeShaun Williams and James Thues.

So he countered with a mixture of strong guards (Brown and Brandin Knight) and bruising big men (Morris and Lett).

‘They’re not quite as big on the boards,’ Howland said. ‘We’re not doing anything special. We’re just going out and beating them on the boards. We don’t let them rebound on offense.’

Said Celuck: ‘They’ve got five guys crashing the boards. We normally only have two or three guys crashing the boards so the advantage is there for them. They’ll hustle for the ball and scrap.’

And dive and twist and throw elbows and do whatever it takes to keep the ball away from the Orangemen. SU put up little resistance, too, which bodes poorly for their next stretch of games.

After hosting Virginia Tech on Saturday, the Orangemen travel to burly Georgetown, which last Feb. 24 outrebounded SU, 44-24, and then face Rutgers, which held its own on the boards against the Orangemen earlier this season. Then comes West Virginia and its 45-40 rebounding advantage in a 75-69 SU win on Jan. 12.

There isn’t an instant solution, either. Boeheim hopes Forth and McNeil can turn into consistent rebounders, because rotating three centers, he said, is not an option. And relying on forwards for rebounds could prove costly against bigger, stronger Big East teams such as Pitt.

‘We just can’t, can’t win that way,’ Boeheim said. ‘It’s strange, because we’ve been rebounding all year long. It’s something we’ve got to think about. Whether we have to make a better effort or what it may be, we’re going to have to rebound better down the stretch.’

Published on January 22, 2002 at 12:00 pm