PITTSBURGH — The seven freshmen and two seniors in the rotation, Pitt won’t win many games when spotting the opposition 20 points, and that’s exactly what Pitt did on Saturday afternoon, as Georgia Tech ran away with a 69-54 victory after starting the game on a 21-1 run.
Georgia Tech started the game with 13 unanswered points and Pitt didn’t make a basket until nearly the seven minute mark of the first half.
It was a combination of poor defense and poor shooting from the Panthers. Georgia Tech made 11 of its first 13 shots while Pitt struggled offensively.
The Panthers changed to a full-court zone defense later in the first half and used it to go on a run of their own and close the gap to seven points late in the first half.
Pitt even when the defense tightened, Pitt never particularly looked comfortable against Georgia Tech’s man-to-man defense, a change from their usual 2-3 zone. The Panthers shot 42.9 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 14 times.
One of the reasons Georgia Tech prefers to play zone is to keep center Ben Lammers and forward Abdoulaye Gueye out of foul trouble, but Pitt wasn’t really able to take advantage of that change. Gueye fouled out after receiving a technical, but not until he’d scored a game-high 16 points.
Pitt will next visit Syracuse on Tuesday.
POSTGAME REACTION
Pitt shooting guard Monty Boykins, head coach Kevin Stallings and Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner spoke with the media after the game. Here’s the full postgame reaction from the Petersen Events Center:
