PITTSBURGH — Bourama Sidibe’s aching left knee finally appears to be coming around. Syracuse’s weird season may follow suit.

The freshman forward came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points to go with 16 rebounds in 31 energetic minutes as the Orange pulled away from Pittsburgh late in a 60-55 victory. Limited to just 35 minutes total during Syracuse’s first seven Atlantic Coast Conference games, Sidibe looked healthy at both ends of the floor as Syracuse (15-6, 4-4 ACC) won its third straight.

“He was spectacular I thought,” coach Jim Boeheim said. “I thought he had like 12 (points) and 12 (rebounds) or something, or 12 and 10. Good thing I didn’t take him out.”

Sidibe’s play didn’t allow it. While the starting frontcourt of Oshae Brissett, Marek Dolezaj and Paschal Chukwu combined to shoot just 6 of 26, Sidibe made 6 of 8 shots, most of them layups around the basket after finding open space in Pitt’s 2-3 zone.

“I just see opportunity and go and play,” Sidibe said. “Last game I wanted to play and I didn’t play. (Boeheim) was kind of telling me I’m not ready, my knee is not ready. I just go today and play and show him my knee is fine and I can play.”

Sidibe came in averaging just 2.8 points per game on the season and had scored 16 points total since Thanksgiving. He topped that total in the span of two hours as the Orange beat the Panthers for the second time in 11 days.

Marcus Carr led Pitt (8-14, 0-9) with 16 points and 12 assists and Jarod Wilson-Frame added 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds but the Panthers dropped their ninth straight.