After three solid games against South Carolina State, Purdue Fort Wayne, and Syracuse, Pitt’s Zack Austin failed to score a single point in the Panthers’ recent loss to No. 8 North Carolina.
On Saturday against Louisville, he bounced back from the very start, scoring ten of the Panthers’ first 18 points in their 83-70 win over the Cardinals.
“Zack is a good player,” Capel said after the game on The CW. “The past two years at High Point, he’s made over 60 threes in each season. I thought the thing that helped us the most was that we moved the ball, the ball had energy. He got open looks, he was able to hit them. He made some great cuts to the basket.”
With the win, Pitt advanced to 10-5 on the year, and 1-3 in the ACC so far.
Austin had a steal, a dunk, a rebound, a layup, a three pointer, and a block in the first seven minutes of the game. After cooling down a bit throughout the rest of the half, he caught fire again in the second. In the latter frame, he hit all three field-goal tries, including 2 for 2 from three-point range, en route to ten more points.
Austin finished the game with a season-high 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting, adding four steals, one block, three assists, and three rebounds in the win. Austin also surpassed the 1,000-point mark in his career in the effort. He played aggressively throughout the day, running the floor, making the most of his athleticism, and finding his three-point stroke in the win.
Pitt’s Zack Austin Surpasses 1,000 Career Points
YOUNG GUARDS STEPPED UP WITHOUT LEGGETT
Ishmael Leggett missed his first game of his season on Saturday due to a shoulder injury suffered against Syracuse. He played through the injury against North Carolina earlier in the week, but sat out on Saturday. Jaland Lowe was then thrown into the starting lineup, and he thrived in his first career collegiate start.
Lowe scored nine points on 3-for-6 shooting, including 2 for 3 from three-point range. In addition, fellow freshman Bub Carrington stuffed the stat sheet once again, scoring 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting, grabbing six rebounds, and dishing out five assists, including a highlight alley-oop to Federiko Federiko.
“It’s important, you have to have good guard play to win,” Jeff Capel said in his post-game interview on The CW. “I feel really good about our guards. For Jaland to come in, his first start, he found out before the game. To play as well as he did, the poise that he had. It hurt us when we went out with foul trouble, but guys stepped up. Bub has played a lot of minutes, and I thought he did a really good job, had to play heavy, heavy minutes today. Hopefully we can get Ish back. Hopefully he’s a quick healer and we can get him back because obviously, he’s really important for us.”
Pitt Bounces Back, Beats Louisville for First ACC Win 83-70
FREE THROW FIX
Pitt came into Saturday’s game ranked as the No. 288 team in the nation in free-throw percentage, shooting 66.6% from the free-throw line throughout the first 14 games of the season. However, against the Cardinals, the Panthers finally found some confidence, and success, from the stripe.
Pitt hit 19 of its 21 free-throw attempts in the win, headlined by Blake Hinson’s 8-for-8 game and Jorge Diaz-Graham’s 5-for-5 performance. Austin and Carrington both went 2-2 from the charity stripe as well. Lowe and Guillermo Diaz-Graham both went 1 for 2 from the line.
LOUISVILLE STRUGGLES AGAIN
Kenny Payne’s Louisville squad has had a rough go since he took over the program last year. After finishing 4-28 last season, the Cardinals fell to 5-9 and 0-3 in ACC play this season.
Louisville struggled to take care of the ball, turning the ball over 18 times to Pitt. Former Pitt recruiting target Ty-Laur Johnson turned the ball over five times himself, finishing with seven points, five turnovers, six assists, and five rebounds in an up-and-down game.
“They played hard,” Capel said. “Louisville plays hard. I know there is a lot of noise but those kids played hard, they have talent. But our guys played really, really well, we did some really good things.”
Mike James thrived for Louisville, hitting eight of his first ten shot attempts and five of his first six three-point tries. At one point in the second half, James willed the Cardinals back into the game, draining three-straight threes and cutting the deficit down to seven points. However, Pitt shut down the run with a three from its own star of the night, Austin, hitting another three.
Pitt will continue its season on Tuesday, Jan. 9 against No. 14 Duke at the Petersen Events Center. That game will be televised on ESPN.
