After surviving a close game on Saturday against the Florida State Seminoles, the Pittsburgh Panthers men’s basketball team failed to earn a win against the Clemson Tigers. The Panthers traveled down to Greenville, South Carolina to face the Tigers in an attempts to improve their record to 17 wins.
However, the record is now at 16-4 with the 73-60 loss to the Tigers. The Panthers had a low night in numbers, with their field goal percentage being only at 38.2 percent. The Panthers had 42.1 percent of completed three point attempts. However, the Panthers did make 10 of their 14 free throw attempts, which brought their percentage to 71.4 percent.
The Panthers were outscored in the first half, finishing the first half down 26-40. However, the Panthers outscored the Tigers in the second half, but by only one point, with the Panthers having 34 points to the Tiger’s 33 points. After tonight’s result, the Panthers now have a record of 5-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
Michael Young’s night- Michael Young was the only reason the Panthers stayed in the game. The forward had the only double digits of the game when it came to scoring. Young tied his season high 25 points against the Tigers and only missed one of his six free throws. Young also led the team in rebounds with seven.
Young also made both of his three-point attempts and made nine out of 14 field goal shots. Young had two assists but had no blocks, which isn’t a normal occurrence for the 6’9 junior.
On top of all his game statistics, Young made his 90th career start, which is the seventh-longest streak in the history of Pittsburgh Panthers basketball. Also during the game Young became the 44th player for the Panthers to reach 1,000 career points.
Clemson’s starters out shoot Pitt’s starters- As mentioned, Young was the only player for the Panthers to have numbers in the double digits. The only players, who started the game alonside Young, to come close to double digits were guard James Robinson with eight points and forward Jamel Artis with nine points.
However for the Tigers, four out of their five starters had double digit points. Forward Jaron Blossomgame scored the most for the Tigers with 22 points and was followed by guards Jordan Roper and Avry Holmes who both tied with 13 points each. Landry Nnoko, a center, finished off the double digit scoring with 12 points, while forward Donte Grantham only scored seven points. Either way, that’s way more double digit scorers than the Panthers had.
Defense wins, or loses, games- The Panthers and Tigers had some major differences in numbers, with the Tigers normally topping the Panthers. However, when it came to rebounds, there wasn’t a giant margin. The Tigers still beat the Panthers out with 37 rebounds to Pittsburgh’s 32 rebounds.
The reason there was so many rebounds and not enough points was simply because the Tigers defense was better than the Panthers. The Panthers had only two blocks against the Tigers, while they had five on the Panthers. The Panthers also had 11 turnovers compared to the Tigers nine turnovers.
The Panthers also caused the Tigers to take plenty of four shots. The Tigers were sent to the line 13 times, while the Panthers were sent to the free throw line only six times. The Tigers scored 18 points on free throws alone, compared to the Panther’s five points on the free throw line.
Next up- The Panthers will host the Virginia Tech Hokies (12-8) on Sunday, January 31 at the Peterson Events Center. The game is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.
