WASHINGTON — Dajuan Coleman lay on the ground while the Syracuse bench rose to its feet, players pumping their fists and clapping their hands. The Orange was on an 8-0 run and Coleman drew a charge to give his team a chance to make it even more.

He got up to his feet, pointed to the person holding the mop and told him where to clean up the floor drenched with his sweat.

Coleman has been inconsistent this season, showing some flashes of the player he was expected to be. On Wednesday, he played seemingly the most aggressive game of his Orange career.

“The whole game I’m just playing all out,” Coleman said.

Coleman finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds in Syracuse’s (19-13, 9-9) 72-71 loss to Pittsburgh (21-10, 9-9) on Wednesday afternoon at the Verizon Center. He was 5-of-7 from the field and found success finishing, even scoring once off the dribble. He secured four offensive rebounds, and showed reckless abandon.

Jim Boeheim said that he would have liked to see Coleman be even more aggressive. Coleman said he would have liked to finish some of his shots better. Regardless, with Tyler Roberson struggling again — he scored four points, took one shot and collected just two rebounds — Coleman was the big man option for Michael Gbinije and Frank Howard to look for.

“I thought DC asserted himself in the paint at times,” Gbinije said. “He did a good job rebounding as well. I think he stepped up.”

His first big play came on off a pass from Cooney that he rose up and dunked. His last big play before coming out late in the second half was a monstrous block on a Chris Jones attempt just before the shot clock expired.

Still, on a layup attempt following his drawn charge, he missed badly. That would have cut the lead to four. He continually would get the ball and bring it down low instead of going straight up with it.

“I thought he got a little bit better,” Boeheim said. “He’s still not where we need him to be.”

As a result, he wasn’t in the game as the Orange made its final, furious run to fully close the gap. But while he’s shown flashes this season — a 13-point performance against Montana State and a fantastic two-minute stretch at home against Florida State — this was the time when he was the best for the longest.

And it still wasn’t enough to get SU a win.

“These games, you really want to be able to win these games,” Coleman said. “We wasn’t able to do that.”

Published on March 9, 2016 at 4:46 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3