The Pitt basketball program was supposed to get a taste of some tougher competition when it made its first appearance in the Maui Invitational.
They probably didn’t expect that to be the case as soon as they stepped off the plane in Hawaii. Pitt got a lot more than the warm up game they were expecting from the Rainbow Warriors.
Hawaii’s Michael Thomas scored four of his 12 points late in the game as the Rainbow Warriors defeated Pitt 74-70 early Saturday morning, sending the Panthers to their first loss of the young season.
Thomas gave Hawaii a 62-60 lead with just over six minutes left and the Panthers never recovered. The Panthers missed their next seven shot attempts, and finished the night making only three of their final 13 attempts. Meanwhile the Rainbow Warriors made their free throws and at one point extended their lead to seven before Chris Jones knocked down a pair of three pointers late to cut the deficit.
Jones led Pitt with a career-high 19 points. Michael Young scored 13 for Pitt and James Robinson had 12 for the Panthers, who shot only 43.1 percent from the floor as Hawaii’s zone defense bothered Pitt all game long.
Pitt led until late in the first half and went into the locker room down 40-36. They regained the lead on a pair of free throws and a layup by Robinson with just over eight minutes left, but a dunk by Thomas a couple minutes later put Hawaii up for good.
The Rainbow Warriors sealed the deal by making seven of their final nine free throws, four of which coming from Aaron Valdes in the final 25 seconds.
Isaac Fleming led the Rainbow Warriors (4-1) with 15 points, Nexus Webster-Chan and Garrett Navels added 11 each and Valdes scored 10 as Hawaii shot 52.9 percent from the floor.
Pitt (2-1, 0-1), will be back in action Monday night against Chaminade in the 2014 EA Sports Maui Invitational.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
