On Tuesday night, Pitt fell to Clemson in an intense, back-and-forth contest at Littlejohn Stadium.
It was a battle for nearly all 40 minutes, with the two teams trading runs and leads throughout the matchup. However, in the end, Clemson sealed the victory with an emphatic two-handed slam by Ian Schieffelin, closing out the Panthers’ chances at a much-needed win on the road.
The Panthers jumped out to an early 8-1 lead behind three pointers from Zack Austin and Jaland Lowe. However, Joe Girard III hit the first three of the night on the other end, cutting Pitt’s lead to 10-6 minutes later
The Panthers held onto the lead behind three-point buckets from Bub Carrington, Ishmael Leggett, and others. After Leggett’s early three, Pitt increased its lead to 20-12. Shortly after, Carrington fed Austin in the corner for his second three of the game, building Pitt’s lead up to 23-13. As Pitt’s offense thrived early, the defense forced five turnovers in the first 15 minutes of action. Clemson’s PJ Hall hit an early three pointer to lead the Tigers, but overall, Pitt had the edge on both sides early on.
After Blake Hinson drove to the basket for a layup with 6:11 left in the first half, neither team scored until the 3:31 mark, when Clemson’s Chase Hunter hit a pair of free throws to cut Pitt’s lead down to 25-20. Pitt continued its cold streak, making just one of ten field-goal attempts from the 8:27 mark down to the 2:42 mark. Leggett snapped the Panthers out of it, hitting a deep two and then a layup to extend the Panther lead to 31-23.
At the break, the Panthers led 31-27 over the Tigers despite going just 2-7 on layups and 0-2 on dunk attempts in the half. Through 20 minutes, Leggett led Pitt with nine points, Lowe had seven, and Austin had six from his two three pointers. The Panthers shot 38% from the field in the half, and made five of their ten three-point tries. Clemson out-rebounded Pitt in the first 18-15, but the Panthers had the upper hand in the turnover department, turning the ball over once to Clemson’s seven times.
In the second half, Clemson quickly took over the lead as Pitt struggled to the tune of 0-7 from the field in the first three minutes of play. Hinson snapped the cold streak with a patient layup out of the post, giving Pitt a 35-34 lead.
Throughout the next few minutes, the two teams traded buckets. Austin threw down a huge and-one slam dunk, and Lowe followed it up with a layup. However, Clemson replied with a layup from Josh Beadle.
Pitt then went more than three minutes without a bucket, and the Tigers struggled offensively as well. Carrington found Federiko on a pick-and-roll for a slam dunk to end the cold streak and retake the lead, 44-43. On the next possessions, Joe Girard III and Bub Carrington traded three pointers, and after that, Carrington hit another to give Pitt a four-point advantage with 8:44 to go.
Leggett tied the game at 52 with an important lay-in with just over six minutes to play. However, Clemson would not slow down. Beadle delivered another bucket to retake the Tiger lead, and it was desperation time for the Panthers.
With just over four minutes to play, Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin drained a three pointer to extend Clemson’s lead up to five points, 61-56. After Carrington hit a deep two for Pitt, the Panthers found themselves down three with less than three to play. The score stayed the same down to the 2:02 mark, when Clemson’s Brad Brownell called timeout with the ball, up three. On that possession, Clemson turned the ball over, and after Carrington was fouled on the other end, he hit both free throws to cut the deficit down to just one.
On the ensuing possession, Clemson star PJ Hall hit two free throws, and the Panthers, with 1:27 remaining, had the ball down by three. On the next possession, Carrington missed a contested three and Clemson got the rebound. The Tigers then hit the dagger: a Chase Hunter three that trickled in.
The Tigers closed out the win with Schieffelin’s dunk as Pitt struggled to climb back in. Pitt’s Carrington led the way with 18 points in the loss, while Leggett had 15 and Austin had ten.
With the loss, Pitt falls to 18-10 overall and 9-8 in ACC play. The Panthers will now travel to Boston to take on Boston College on Saturday, March 2 at 6 p.m.
Anyone have a fork, lol? What say you Eric Payne? Pitt Guy?
Thinking about me again? Although they lost a tough game, their season is hardly over. As disappointed as this loss was, even Stevie Wonder can see that this program is headed in the right direction. 14-18? Even if they are bad,they are better than you think they are. Your moronic rumblings will NEVER convince anyone otherwise. Why don’t you take your complaints directly to the AD yourself? I’m quite sure that she would LOVE to hear from a sad little troll, who attends NO games or offers No support. I would love to hear her response.
Lol. “Sad little troll” aka an actual alumni. “As disappointed”. And you’re blathering about “moronic rumblings”. Your stupidly is epic.
Alumnus 😉
Bozo, an actual alumni contributes to the program. You are an empty pocket, no contribution, who needs you kind of alumni. I am epic, you’re an IDIOT. Lol.
Yeah I’m a bozo with 2 Pitt degrees. What do you have? Zilch you cretin. Anytime you want to compare contribution levels I’m game you short form filing loser.
The neverending irony of your uneducated self referring to me as an idiot is really rich……..
If you’re degrees were dynamite, you wouldn’t have enough to blow your nose. What a fun fu—-g waist. Why don’t you take your degrees and wipe your a– with them???
ooohhh………truth stings doesn’t it, cretin? “Waist” lol
Why don’t you take your degrees and……………….oh wait, you can’t lol
Whenever I see those black jerseys, I turn the game off. And as it appears their season has been turned off too.
Can’t expect much or even a win when Hinson just scores in the single digits. Still hopeful for the NCAA tourney but I think now they have to win out plus win 2 in the ACC tournament? The 2 losses to Syracuse hurts the most. Regroup and HAVE to beat Boston College. H2P!
Missouri loss is much worse.
They have won one game in the ACC when they scored less than 70 points
That’s obvious. Funny how you always appear when they lose. Outcoached again?
NIT
Not going to win any games with 4 assists in total. Also not going to win when legget shoots 15 times, the most in the game. This seems a game lost because of coaching.
It’s called shooting, not coaching.
No, it’s coaching
Even My mom knew the opponents plan was to stop Blake Hinson yet Capel was seemingly unprepared with plays and devices to get him open looks. Plus Hinson wasn’t making any great effort. He quits if you frustrate him enough. Clemson tried to give it to Pitt though. Pitt lost structure and went into wild shot mode. Loss
Clemson played some serious defense, too. They were always in their faces. That was impressive, and frustrating.
Tough loss. Actually, I didn’t think Clemson was that impressive. We gave them the game.
To have a chance to make the tournament they need to win out, win a game in the ACC tournament, and win those games convincingly. They can still finagle their way in with a good enough NET to force the committee to put them in, or answer questions about the validity of the NET itself. They only dropped to 49 or so in the NET today.
This is a very, very narrow pathway.
I am not ready to throw in the towel on the season, it was a tough loss, but not unexpected. The truth is this team has overperformed in my view The freshman guards have been better than expected. Hinson has been as expected, but Austin has been up and down, the bigs are not athletically gifted enough to compete consistently against talented bigs Feddy has his moments on defense but his offense is awful, GDG has some moments, but is too skinny to body up JDG loss has hurt depth, but all 3 lack basketball IQ. they make bad passes… Read more »
Pitt.needs some big men. It doesn’t matter if they can shoot at this point. Big,tall,thick bodies that can jump,rebound,and box out.. Not our current beanpoles masquerading as centers and forwards.
Coach Chappel doesn’t seem to get it. How’s a 3rd seed in the ‘NIT’ sound?
Great observation. Wait until you see Papa Kante.
Lol.
Put that laptop back before your boss finds out that you stole it again.
You’re stupidly is both sad and epic.