Pitt Continues to Falter with Fourth-Straight Loss at SMU

The panic button has been activated for a few weeks now for the Pitt men’s basketball team with the Panthers dropping seven of their last nine games. In order to turn Pitt’s season around, it started with an opportunity to secure just the second Quad 1 win of the year in Dallas, Texas as Pitt took on the SMU Mustangs.

Whatever sense of urgency Pitt was hoping to play with never materialized on the floor, especially in the first half, as the Panthers fell to the SMU Mustangs, 83-63, at the Moody Coliseum.

SMU (19-5, 10-3 ACC) led wire-to-wire and its lead was never truly threatened by the Panthers. Samet Yiğitoğlu — a 7-foot-2, 265-pound freshman from Istanbul, Turkey — drew the attention of Pitt double teams all evening long, but the young talent had no problem dealing with the added pressure as he registered his third double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Mustangs, a team that leads the ACC in both points per game with 82.3 and three-point shooting at 38.9 percent utilized that very formula to spark its offense. SMU shot 55.8 percent (29-of-52) from the floor and sank 10 triples on 20 attempts.

SMU showcased its balanced scoring as Kario Oquendo scored 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting and four triples. Matt Cross and Boopie Miller both added 13 apiece.

Pitt (14-10, 5-8 ACC) was paced Guillermo Diaz Graham with 15 points and eight rebounds. Brandin Cummings added another 12 for the Panthers. Pitt shot a mere 31.8 percent from the floor — the lowest output in conference play this season. That was accompanied by a 25.7 percent (9-of-35) from beyond the arc.

SMU opened the game knocking down five triples on its first seven field goal attempts with Miller sinking a pair of threes to put the Mustangs ahead 21-11.

Pitt, a group already shorthanded without the services of Damian Dunn, saw center Cameron Corhen get into early foul trouble that limited him to four minutes in the first half.

With the 6-10 forward on the bench, Pitt struggled mightily to muster any offense within the paint, scoring just once in the first half on an old-fashioned three-point play from Diaz Graham that snapped a four minute, 32 second scoring drought.

Reoccurring issues of late followed the Panthers around the floor as point guard Jaland Lowe led a flurry of Pitt turnovers as he registered four in the opening 20 minutes of play. At the six-minute mark of the first, Pitt recored eight turnovers to just six made fields goals.

The lack of finishing reached a low point when Pitt managed to grab four offensive rebounds on a single possession. However, the Panthers had nothing to show for it.

Moments later, Keon Ambrose-Hylton threw down an alley-oop to lift SMU to its biggest lead of the game at 36-16.

Zack Austin knocked down a pair of late triples in the first half and appeared to score at the buzzer after a high-flying blocked shot, but after review, the bucket was negated. SMU led at the half, 43-27.

Yiğitoğlu wreaked havoc early in the second half in the paint, scoring eight points in a hurry, including a fierce dunk.

As Pitt tried to stay afloat, Cummings provided an offensive touch with a pair of triples, along with a driving layup as the Panthers brought the game within 13 points with over 10 minutes to play.

A quick 7-0 run in 41 seconds fueled by a pair of takeaways and transitional buckets and a 3-pointer from Oquendo boosted the SMU lead to its largest at 73-52 that would suffice for the Mustangs’ fifth conference win in a row.

Pitt returns back home after two weeks away from the Petersen Events Center when it takes on a Miami Hurricanes team that sits at the bottom of the ACC. Tip is set for noon.