The Pitt Panthers came into Saturday’s matchup against No. 9 Virginia 14-3 against Top 10 teams all-time at the Petersen Events Center.
Pitt came to play- for a half- but ultimately were outclassed by the visiting Cavaliers in a 64-50 defeat.
With the game tied at 31 early in the second half, Virginia put together a 12-0 run on the back of excellent three-point shooting, something they did well all afternoon.
Malcom Brogden, who finished with 21 points, Devon Hall and London Perrantes all drained shots from behind the arc on consecutive possessions before Hall completed the run with a traditional three-point play to give the Hoos a 43-31 advantage.
Perrantes was also in double figures for Virginia with 14.
Meanwhile the Panthers committed three turnovers during that span.
That was all Virginia needed.
Pitt went nearly seven minutes without scoring as they dug themselves a huge hole, trailing by as many as 19 at one point in the second half.
“Really disappointed in the way we played,” said Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. “Slow start early. We get back in it and we felt good heading into the second half. You can’t play that way and expect to beat a good defensive team like Virginia. A lot of things stand out, but we have to play better. We had the time to get ready and we just didn’t get it done.”
The Panthers were led in scoring by Jamel Artis, who finished with 17. Michael Young finished with a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Strong Close to Half- Pitt closed the first half very strongly, which proved to be big at the time. The Cavaliers led by many as eight early on after putting together a 9-0 run.
Instead of things getting away from the Panthers, they closed the half on a 6-0 run in which they held the Hoos scoreless for the final 3:56.
Jamel Artis led the way by scoring 13 of his 17 points in the first half, while Michael Young added eight. Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon led all first-half scorers with 14.
“We felt good coming out for the second half,” Artis said. “The mentality was all about defense. We needed to get stops and we didn’t. They went on a run and we didn’t respond.”
Second-half Power Outage- The second half doomed the Panthers as they made just 8-off-21 (38.1 percent) attempts from the floor, with most of those makes coming long after the outcome was already decided.
Pitt shot just 39 percent on the afternoon, while allowing Virginia to connect at a 48 percent clip.
“They got layups and open jump shots all day and we were taking contested jumpers,” Dixon said.
Defending the Perimeter- Virginia showed why they are good. They showed great patience offensively and it usually resulted in wide open shots from the perimeter.
The Hoos knocked down those open looks for the most part, hitting 5-of-8 from behind the arc in the first half and 9-of-16 (56.3 percent) overall as Pitt once again struggled to defend the perimeter and find open shooters.
“When we share the ball like that it is fun to watch,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett. “When we are that unselfish at both ends of the floor it gives us our best chance to win. The ball movement was good and there were enough plays out there to be made.”
The Panthers shot just 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from long range, including an 0-7 performance in the second half.
“You can’t let teams go 9-of-16 and expect to win,” Dixon said.
Points in the Paint- Virginia was productive scoring in the paint while Pitt was not as the Cavs outscored Pitt 28-14 in the paint.
For the most part Virginia was able to turn Pitt into solely a jump shooting team as they aggressively double Young from start to finish.
“I was worried about Pitt’s ability to stretch it and shoot it, but we did a good job on Young today and we did a solid job on the perimeter defensively,” Bennett said. “We were able to get to shooters and make them take contested shots. We said first thing first and we wanted to take care of the paint first and then get to their shooters.”
Taking Care of the Rock- The second half was a combination of Pitt playing very sloppy and Virginia playing very well.
Pitt didn’t help its own cause, committing 12 turnovers- nine in the second half- which led to 20 Virginia points.
On the flip side, the Cavaliers committed just seven turnovers on the afternoon, which Pitt turned into only six points.
“The double team hurt us,” Dixon said. “We have been seeing it all year, but we didn’t do a good job with it today. We knew we couldn’t fall behind and once we did we started forcing it. We had turnovers in transition. We often made the wrong pass. Spacing wasn’t good and neither was the decision making. When we got down we just didn’t handle it well.”
Up Next- Things don’t get any easier for Pitt as they travel to No. 15 Miami as Pitt plays the first of two games on the road against ranked opponents next week
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