Pitt Takeaways: Panthers Freshman Guards Display Potential in Win Over Miami

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers (15-10, 6-8 ACC) hosted a struggling Miami (6-19, 2-12 ACC) team for a Saturday afternoon showdown at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers entered the game with their own struggles as they have lost eight of their last 10 games prior to Saturday and to make matters worse, they were without two key starters.

Fortunately for the Panthers, the play of Ishmael Leggett paved the way for Pitt to break its four-game losing streak. Leggett posted a game-high 21 points. Another source of offense in the absence of Lowe and Dunn were two freshman guards that have not seen many minutes as of late in Brandin Cummings and Asmal Delalić.

Cummings received the start alongside Leggett but Delalić played the second most amount of minutes that he did all season with 28. Cummings and Delalić combined to play 61 minutes against the Hurricanes and each had their moments when they flashed their future potential.

Cummings played 33 minutes in his second career start and scored 11 points. His first start came back on New Year’s Day against Cal when he played a season-high 38 minutes. While he shot just 3-of-9, Cummings made some of his best plays off of the ball and on defense.

Delalić played 28 minutes in the win over Miami and Capel credited that to him playing as well as he did. In his extended appearance, Delalić scored a season-high 14 points as he made nearly 50% of his 13 shots.

“I just wanted to make an energy effort and I made it in then it was kind of free flowing for me from that point,” Delalić said after the game. “I just knew that we were in the situation that we were, we lost the last four games and I knew that I just needed to step up and that is what I did.”

“I thought today was the best that he has played in a while,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel added about Delalić. “He just played better today. I didn’t go into it think that I am going to play him for 27 minutes, I knew he was going to play, then depending how he played, he would play more minutes. He was terrific so like I said I didn’t feel like I could take him out because of how well he was playing.”

While the two freshman gave it their all, Leggett filled the void at the guard spot and played one his best games of the season. He scored a game-high 21 points in a very efficient 6-of-11 shooting performance. He was more than just the main scorer as he was tied for the team-high with 10 rebounds.

“I kind of told the guys before the game, whatever it takes, do what we gotta do, we got two guys down so do it for yourself but also do it for your brothers,” Leggett said after the win. “We played kind of on fire like our backs were against the wall and that translates. … We repped it out in practice so we got a good feel for who’s going to be where. I think we did a great job in practice just prepping stuff out.”

Even with the three guards pulling their weight, Cam Corhen scored a sneaky 17 points in addition to his eight rebounds. Corhen also displayed a level of physicality on the defensive side of the court that has been lacking in previous games as he created multiple Hurricane turnovers throughout the game. The Panthers won the turnover battle as they gave it away just nine times.

The Panthers found themselves in a dog fight that they did not want to be in at the halftime intermission as they led the Hurricanes by just two points. A big reason that they pulled away in the second half was the play of Zack Austin who scored nine of his 11 points in the closing half.

The reason that the Panthers won, according to their head coach, was their level of commitment in practice and the fight that they bring. An example of that “fight” was Cummings standing his ground in the final 25 seconds after the teams got chippy. It resulted in a technical foul on Cummings but Capel said he “loved” it.

“We have a lot of season left and we have to continue to fight,” Capel said. “The thing that I am encouraged by and inspired by is how these guys continue to show up and how they practice and how they have each others back. Today I saw them hold themselves accountable, hold each other accountable. That was really good to see so hopefully it is something that we can build on.”

Pitt stays at home and will play host to Syracuse on Tuesday night in another crucial game for the Panthers’ tournament hopes. The Panthers defeated the Orange by the score of 77-73 at the Dome on Jan. 25 despite the Orange’s big-man Eddie Lampkin posting 23 rebounds.