Scoring droughts have become a staple of this year’s Pitt Panthers team and a pair of another very lengthy droughts cost the Panthers in a big way Saturday afternoon against the visiting Clemson Tigers.
Pitt went a 12-minute span in the first half and a five-minute span in the second half, only making one field goal and the Panthers couldn’t recover from it as they dropped a 71-62 battle to Clemson, their first ACC home game of the season.
“This one is very disappointing,” said Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. “Obviously we aren’t very happy with how we played. They defended better than us and they executed better than us offensively. And the rebounding is especially disappointing.”
Pitt (11-5, 1-2 ACC) started out fairly well from the floor, making six of their first 10 attempts. A Cameron Wright jumper with 13:41 remaining in the first half gave Pitt a 14-11 lead.
But things went south in a big way for Pitt.
Clemson (9-6, 1-2) switched a zone defense after that point and it paid huge dividends.
“We didn’t play very well the first four minutes defensively,” said Clemson head coach Brad Brownell. “We were a half step slow and a little bit behind everything. I wanted to go zone just to see if it would slow things down and help us get our legs under us.”
The Panthers made just one field goal, a Josh Newkirk layup over the course of the next 12 minutes, which saw them turn a lead into an 11-point deficit.
It wasn’t until Wright made three consecutive field goals late in the first half that the Panthers came to life. After making just 10-of-28 shot attempts in the first half, Pitt was fortunate to find themselves down only 36-31.
Pitt made a charge early in the second half as they held the Tigers without a field goal for nearly a three-minute stretch. A three-pointer from Newkirk, followed by a mid-range jumper from Jamel Artis completed a 7-0 Pitt run and tied the game at 44.
But the Panthers endured another drought after that, going the next 5:02 without scoring. Clemson put together a 12-2 run to take a 56-46 advantage and all but wrap up the game.
“We felt like we needed to come out and give our best effort all game, not just during that stretch,” said Wright. “When you get outrebounded by 17 you are going to lose games. It’s plain and simple. They wanted it more today.”
Pitt shot under 40 percent for the game, making just 24-of-51 (39.6 percent) shot attempts from the floor and made only 4-of-13 attempts from behind the arc on the afternoon.
That’s against the same Clemson team that came into Saturday’s game having already lost to the likes of Winthrop, Gardner-Webb and Rutgers this season.
“I’m very proud of my players,” said Brownell. “They competed well and is a testament of how bad we wanted to win this game. We made some shots and we haven’t done that in a long time. We executed well in a lot of different areas today. We beat a really good team.”
One major problem that bit Pitt was the fact that the Panthers continue to struggle rebounding the ball against bigger ACC teams. It was a problem their first two conference games and showed up in a big way on Saturday as Clemson outrebounded Pitt 39-22, including grabbing 14 offensive rebounds to only six from Pitt.
Pitt’s 22 rebounds is the lowest total of any team in the Jamie Dixon-era and marked the lowest rebounding total for a game at the Petersen Events Center. The minus-17 rebounding margin is also the lowest total for the Panthers on the season.
The last time a Pitt team was outrebounded by 17 came on January 3, 1999 in a loss to Georgetown, which came under Ben Howland’s watch.
“We especially emphasized rebounding for this game and to get beat that bad on the boards is especially disappointing,” said Dixon. “Our zone wasn’t very good. Our press wasn’t very good and our man-to-man wasn’t where we want it to be. That played a part in it also.”
Wright led the Panthers with 18 points, while Chris Jones added 11. Michael Young, the Panthers leading scorer on the season, found things very difficult against the Tigers’ length. Young made just 3-of-12 attempts from the floor and scored just nine points.
But overall there just weren’t enough big shots to go down for the Panthers.
“Their zone was tough to penetrate,” said Pitt guard James Robinson. “They were aggressive and took away driving lanes and rebounded out of the zone. That kind of frustrated us a little bit. I have to be able to penetrate the zone better and create shots for others.”
Clemson was led in scoring by sophomore Jaron Blossomgame, who finished with 18. Senior guard Rod Hall also finished in double figures with 12.
The Panthers will be back in action Wednesday night when they host Florida State at the Petersen Events Center.
“We have to get ready for Florida State,” said Dixon. “We can dwell on this one or get ready for Wednesday. We have to get ready for Florida State. We have to look at something because what we did today didn’t work.”
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
