Time to Shine: Will Jeffress Steps Up Big to Clinch Win Over Wake Forest

PITTSBURGH — Although Pitt’s Bub Carrington and Ishmael Leggett stood out on the box score of Wednesday night’s win over Wake Forest, another Panther — one who played just 11 minutes — may have been the player of the game.

“Man, Will Jeffress came in, and just the spark that he gave us defensively, he fought,” head coach Jeff Capel said after the win in his opening statement. “He fought. He battled; he was physical.”

Capel was sure to highlight Jeffress’ performance as soon as he could after the game, and rightfully so. The redshirt senior played only two minutes in the first half, grabbing a defensive rebound in that time frame. However, he stayed ready, and made a massive impact when it mattered most.

Jeffress subbed back in with 9:46 remaining in the second half and played the rest of the game for the Panthers. In that time frame, he earned a steal and one other rebound, in addition to perhaps the loudest points of his Pitt career to date. On the defensive end, Jeffress held Wake Forest’s star big man Efton Reid to just two points in the final 9:46, defending the 7-foot, 250-pound Reid well with his 6-foot-7, 210-pound frame.

With less than six minutes to play, Wake Forest had the ball up top in the hands of Cam Hildreth. Hildreth tossed a pass down to Reid in the post, guarded by Jeffress. With just eight seconds on the shot clock, Reid had to make a move. At that point, he had already amassed 14 points and seven rebounds on the Panthers. Jeffress made sure to not let Reid get any momentum towards the basket, and quickly forced a pass back out to the wing. There, Boopie Miller found Hildreth for a three-point attempt. At the time of release, Reid had solid position on Jeffress with both feet inside the paint, squared up to the basket. However, Jeffress went into Reid’s body and established position of his own. The box out was successful, and the rebound went straight to Jaland Lowe.

Lowe found Ishmael Leggett down the floor, and there, he hit an and-one layup in transition, extending Pitt’s lead to five and blowing the roof off of the Petersen Events Center.

Panther Grit 😼

📺 @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/iXo5UI9hQa

— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) February 1, 2024

Minutes later, Pitt had the ball coming out of a timeout with just 11 seconds left on the shot clock. Its lead was five points, and there was just 2:58 to go in the game. Bub Carrington inbounded the ball to Jeffress on the wing. As soon as he passed the ball in, Carrington sprinted around Jeffress, looking like he was going to take a hand-off from Jeffress and pick up a head of steam towards the top of the key. Wake Forest, thinking Carrington was going to get the ball, aggressively sent both defenders to follow Pitt’s freshman guard.

Pitt was prepared. It was Jeffress’ time to shine.

Jeffress faked the handoff, ducked between both defenders, and rose up for a two-handed slam igniting the Panther faithful in attendance and extending Pitt’s lead to seven. As Jeffress flew through the air, half of the Pitt bench jumped up as high as he did. Assistant coach Jason Capel leapt down to celebrate with the team for a moment. His brother, Jeff, pointed straight to associate head coach Milan Brown, and the two shared a crisp high five.

“Coach [Milan] Brown made a great suggestion in a timeout on an under out-of-bounds, he saw how they were playing a play we ran earlier for Bub, and it worked,” Capel said. “Will did a great job of faking the handoff, going in, and dunking it. So [I’m] just really, really proud of our guys. He’s a perfect example of staying ready, when your opportunity comes, to be ready.”

WILL JEFFRESS 🤯🤯

📺 @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/xAbxzdWeE9

— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) February 1, 2024

Jeffress finished with a +7 point differential in the win — the second highest on the team to Lowe’s +9. He went 1 for 1 from the field with his lone attempt — and make –coming from the dunk.

“Man, all credit to Will,” Leggett said of his teammate. “His mental is strong. He seized the opportunity, his name was called, and he made the most of it. We didn’t expect anything other than for him to make that impact. If you know Will like we know him, you know he’s a resilient guy and he makes the best with everything he does.”