Wolfpack rallies past Pitt, 86-80
Panthers feel they let win slip away
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Pitt team and program that Jeff Capel left the Research Triangle to inherit nearly 10 months ago was much different than the one he returned to the region with on Saturday.
What was then a flailing and directionless group of players that carried the deep wounds of an 8-24 season is now a much more formidable outfit, with young stars around which it can build, a renewed sense of confidence and excitement, and the cathartic joy of its first ACC win in nearly two years.
Only so much, however, can be accomplished and changed in that brief time. Though they were exhibited in a commendable effort — an 86-80 loss to No. 15ranked N.C. State at PNC Arena — the Panthers’ inherent shortcomings were on display, the kind of disparities that dictate the identity of a game and shape its final result, particularly when it pits a top-15 team at home against a rebuilding upstart.
In a game which it led by as many as four with 6:10 remaining, Pitt gave up 21 offensive rebounds (on 41 missed shots), which resulted in 24 second-chance points for the Wolfpack. Against one of the most effective mistakeinducing teams in college basketball, the Panthers (11-5, 1-2 ACC) had 17 turnovers.
What was a bad matchup on paper turned out to be a bad matchup on the court as well. Pitt’s freshman backcourt was tasked with going up against a team that forces a turnover on one out of every four possessions. A small Pitt team that’s among the worst in the ACC at preventing offensive rebounds couldn’t contain a foe that’s one of the 10 best teams in the sport at getting them.
There was only so much it could do, other than let the building process continue to gradually churn.
“It’s about trying to be tough, trying to be competitive, having pride in what you do,” Capel said.
“Obviously, we’re trying to recruit to it, the type of athlete you want to get, the type of versatile guys you want to have, then putting in a system of pressure, being able to pick up, being able to play multiple defenses. Our guys have worked really hard and we’ve gotten better. I still think there’s room for us to improve.”
With the loss, Pitt fell to 216 all time against the Wolfpack (14-2, 2-1), who have won the past seven games in the series.
The victory Saturday was harder earned than most others. N.C. State played much of the game without two of its starters. Forward Wyatt Walker was ejected just two minutes into the game after grabbing Pitt guard Xavier Johnson by the ankle and attempting to pull him down after the two collided and Walker was whistled for a blocking foul.
Later in the first half Markell Johnson, the team’s second-leading scorer at 12.3 points per game and assist leader with 4.2 per game, was injured contesting a Jared Wilson-Frame layup, forcing him to miss the final 30 minutes.
The Wolfpack missed 20 of their first 23 shots of the second half and at one point went 8:12 without a made field goal. As their shots clanged off the rim possession after possession, the Panthers took control, leading for more than 11 of the final 20 minutes.
Eventually, though, whatever supernatural forces exist around a basketball game balanced out and one of the
best shooting teams in Division I started to look the part. With Pitt sitting in a zone to mitigate the ball-screen action its opponent so often runs, N.C. State scored 29 points over its final 12 possessions, a period of 6:09 in which it outscored the Panthers by 10.
“I don’t think we got overwhelmed,” Capel said. “I think they just made some shots and made some plays. They’re a good team. They’re ranked 15th in the country for a reason. They’re good. They made a run, we couldn’t get stops in that moment and we missed some shots. Sometimes, that happens, especially when you’re on the road.”
Johnson paced Pitt with a career-high 25 points, 20 of which he got in the second half, a time in which his team saw its shooting percentage improve — 53.6 percent in the second half, up from 37 percent in the first — but saw its free-throw attempts dip considerably, from 21 in the first to just seven in the second.
Even with Markell Johnson and Walker out of the game, the Wolfpack were able to lean on another clear advantage they held against the Panthers — depth. A team that came into the day averaging nearly 36 bench points per game got 54 from its non-starters Saturday, a lengthy rotation of players who helped wear Pitt down, especially given the pace at which N.C. State likes to run (10th among Division I teams in tempo).
“They just had more guys,” said freshman guard Au’Diese Toney, who had 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, along with six rebounds.
In reality, the Wolfpack have much more of many of the game’s most important measurables, from size to experience to talent. Still, given how close Pitt kept the score and the position the Panthers forced on N.C. State — trailing late while struggling offensively in front of a restless and frustrated home crowd — such advantages mattered little after Pitt lost a winnable game that would have been even more of a statement victory than its overtime triumph three days earlier against Louisville.
An opportunity, to some of them, felt like it got away.
“We feel like this is a game we could have easily had, even if it was their regular starters in there,” Johnson said.