The Pitt Panthers men’s basketball team has a date at Madison Square Garden with No. 5 Michigan on Wednesday. Apparently they forgot they had to play Oakland on Saturday.
Pitt fell into classic trap game syndrome and failed to come out and execute early and found themselves down as many as 18 in the second half, but a furious comeback from the Panthers forced overtime. Once they got there they dominated the Golden Grizzlies and ultimately came out on top with a 72-62 victory to improve to 4-0 on the season.
“First of all, give Oakland credit,” said Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. “They played very well and are a very well coached team. We didn’t play well in the first half at all, but I liked a lot about what we did in the second half. The way we battled back to win a game we probably shouldn’t have should serve as a great learning experience.”
Pitt scored only 20 first-half points and was behind 34-20 at the break.
Much of that had to do with the fact that the Panthers played as bad as a Dixon coached team could. Pitt shot only 30.8 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, while allowing Oakland to connect at 59.1 percent clip. In addition they committed a season-high nine turnovers in the first half.
“We didn’t shoot well and we didn’t defend well,” said senior point guard Tray Woodall, who had his struggles from the floor. “But we did fight. We played as bad as we could, but we showed heart and no one gave up. We kept battling to the very end. I’m proud of that fact.”
Oakland, from the Summit League, is a team with tournament experience, but still one that shouldn’t have been able to run the Panthers out of their own gym.
The Golden Grizzlies upped their lead to 18 with just over 11 minutes left, but that’s when the Panthers went to work.
“I told them at that point that each team probably had about 15 possessions left,” added Dixon. “I said if we start getting some stops and making some shots that we could do this. Give the guys credit for buying in and executing at both ends of the floor.”
No one in a Pitt uniform shot the ball well for the first 30 minutes, but the Panthers went 13-for-22 (59 percent) down the final 11 minutes off regulation plus overtime. In addition, they limited Oakland to only 5-of-13 shooting, forcing eight turnovers. During that span, seven different Pitt players scored, led by J.J. Moore who scored 11 of his 16 points when it mattered most.
Woodall chipped six during that span and James Robinson added seven clutch points, but the Panthers wouldn’t have pulled this one out without the performance of their bench.
In addition to Moore’s contributions, Dante Taylor added eight points during the run while Durand Johnson added five. But it was the energy the second unit brought that made the difference.
“Coming off the bench I feel it is my job to bring energy,” said Taylor, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. “We have a lot of guys on the bench that can play and tonight a lot of us stepped up when our number was called.”
However the Pitt comeback wouldn’t have been complete without Robinson.
The freshman played a big role in Oakland turning the ball over on their final four possessions of regulation.
But down by only two with 15 seconds left, Robinson was called for traveling, which could have ended the game had Oakland been able to get to the line and knock down a couple of free-throws. But the youngster stole the ball with 10 seconds left and got to the charity stripe and calmly knocked down a pair from the line to send it the game into overtime where he buried a jumper to give the Panthers a 60-58 lead, their first lead since it was 9-7.
“I was calm stepping to the line,” said Robinson, who finished with a career-high 14 points. “I felt like I needed to make a play for my team after that traveling call. I decided to gamble and go for the steal there.”
In the process, the Panthers set several team records with the comeback, including:
-Largest Halftime Deficit Overcome (14 points); Previous Record 13 points vs. Duquesne (12-2-09)
– Second Largest Halftime Turnaround (+24)
-Second Largest Second Half Deficit to win (18), Purdue, 22 (12-2-60)
-Third Largest Deficit Overcome to win with less than seven minutes left (seven)
– Tied Largest deficit overcome with less than 1:30 left (seven); West Virginia (2-12-10)
The loss left Oakland head coach Greg Kampe stumped.
“For 37 minutes we were the better team and no one can dispute that,” said Kampe. “We outplayed them in every aspect of the game. Then in the final three minutes I don’t know what happened. I just don’t know. This was a chance for these kids to get a signature win that they would never forget. We should have won the game. Plain and simple. You can put it all on me.”
With a comeback for the ages in the books, the Panthers now can focus solely on Michigan, who they will take on in the semi-finals of the Preseason NIT.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
