Plot all too familiar for reeling Pitt

Cold-shooting Panthers tumble to 7th loss in row

ATLANTA — The previous time Pitt and Georgia Tech played one another 24 days earlier — a period of time that feels like a tormented lifetime ago for the former given what transpired since — the Panthers emerged with a 73-64 victory.

At that time, all appeared well for Jeff Capel and his team. It had taken some lumps in ACC play, but even in a down season for the conference, that wasn’t particularly worrisome. With the win, which was highlighted by a careerhigh 30 points from freshman Justin Champagnie, it moved to 15-9 with seven regular-season games remaining. One more win would have secured the program’s first winning regular season in four years. At that point, though, such a goal seemed modest. There was more to potentially be gained, especially with a relatively manageable schedule ahead.

The Pitt team that left Petersen Events Center that fateful day looked different to the point of being unrecognizable from the one that walked into McCamish Pavilion Wednesday night and walked out of it early Thursday morning with a 73-57 loss. The Panthers hadn’t won since that victory against the Yellow Jackets, dropping their next six games. They weren’t broken, nor had they quit, as their loss four days earlier at N.C. State demonstrated, but they were teetering. The goals they may have once had, namely a postseason appearance, had effectively disappeared.

If there was anything Pitt could have gained from its regular-season finale, it was a respite from the misery that had engulfed it for much of the past month and a sign that something, at last, had gone its way.

The loss Wednesday night did not even offer those small bits of solace.

With their most recent setback, the Panthers fell to 15-16, giving them their fourth-consecutive regular season that ended with a losing record. In the 15 seasons prior to that four-year stretch, they had none.

The loss also means they are guaranteed to finish among the bottom four teams in the ACC, meaning it will play on the first day of the conference tournament next week for the fourth-consecutive season.

Against Georgia Tech’s zone defense, Pitt struggled mightily, making just 17 of its 55 shots (30.9%). Its top four scorers — Justin Champagnie, Xavier Johnson,

Trey McGowens and Au’Diese Toney — combined to go just eight of 34. Champagnie, who went 12 of 17 in his 30-point outburst early last month, was held to 11 points on two-of-eight shooting.

Were it not for ithe Panthers’ 25 attempts from the free-throw line, of which they made 17, the final score would have that much more ghastly.

On the other end, Pitt continued a sharp decline defensively, allowing a team ranked 179th of 353 Division I teams in offensive efficiency entering the evening to shoot 49.1% and average 1.07 points per possession. It had little, if any, answer for Yellow Jackets guard Jose Alvarado, who finished with a game-high 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

The first half followed the script that too many of the Panthers’ have this season, especially in their lowest, most aggravating moments.

They surrendered the first seven points of the game. Even once they got on the board and started to generate some momentum offensively, they went cold, enduring one of their scoreless droughts that have marred so many of their games this season. This most recent one, which went for 6:02, turned a seven-point deficit into a 15point one, a hole that could have been even deeper had Georgia Tech been less careless with the ball in that time.

Even once that scoreless spell was broken with a Ryan Murphy 3-pointer, the bleeding continued, with Pitt falling behind by as many as 18 at 30-12.

It finished the half by rattling off nine unanswered points to make the deficit a more manageable nine points, 30-21. That spurt carried over into the opening minutes of the second half, as the Panthers got within four, 34-30, following a pair of Champagnie free throws.

It was a ray of sunshine that was only apparent for so long. An offense prone to ruts fell into yet another one. Over a stretch of 6:12, it didn’t make a field goal, missing all 10 of its attempts.

By the time Alvarado sank a 3 near the corner and strummed an imaginary guitar in celebration, the Yellow Jackets’ lead was back up to 15 and whatever damage Pitt had inflicted on its opponent was undone.