On Wednesday night, Pitt took down North Carolina for the second time this season after Jamarius Burton sank the game-tying and game-winning free throws with seconds remaining on the clock.
With 24 seconds to go trailing by one, Panthers’ head coach Jeff Capel called for the ball right to go right to Burton out of a timeout. After Burton got the matchup that he liked, he took the ball inside on a drive and was fouled on his floater attempt.
After hitting both clutch free throws, Burton and the Panthers had retaken the lead. Shortly after, North Carolina’s Caleb Love missed his game-winning attempt with .6 remaining, with Nike Sibande in his face and getting a piece of the shot.
Burton finished with 19 points and five rebounds in the win, and Pitt guard Nelly Cummings led the team with 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Cummings took over for the Panthers with a personal 9-0 run in the second half, hitting three-straight three pointers to silence the Tar Heel crowd.
Pitt shot 46% from the field, and 37% from three-point range in the winning effort.
Love scored 22 for the Tar Heels, hitting four of his 11 three-point tries. Behind Love, Armando Bacot added 15 points and 11 rebounds. As a team, the Tar Heels out-rebounded Pitt 43-34.
In the end, Pitt came out with the crucial Quad 1 victory and improved to 16-7 (9-3 ACC). The Tar Heels fell to 15-7 (7-4 ACC).
Those two free throws were yuuuuuge. Props to Burton for getting it done at the line.
I love the chemistry on this Pitt team. Plenty of toughness to go along with the skill.
Great game. They were on the verge of unravelling but battled and held it together. Well done.
H2P
not sure Pitt players thought they were on the verge of unraveling as much as WE may have thought or the idiot game announcers actually suggested
this team is mentally very tough and JB’s leadership but the mood and tone of the entire team maintains that
very well done and great to see Nellie have his big game after struggling for a few
Kudos to Jeff Capel. Great job coach. Keep battling Pitt, one game at a time.
Life as a Pitt fan. Every game is a heart attack, but at least we’re coming out on top in the majority of the close ones. Schedule gets easier after 3 consecutive huge wins…just can’t play down to competition (said with tongue in cheek).
None more heart stopping than the Miami game. Sat in shock the last minute. Hail to Pitt. Now if Capel can discover a way to beat Florida State.
To the announcer who said ….. Pitt is starting to unravel. ! Let me be crystal clear WE DONT UNRAVEL ! Hail to Pitt …. Great win !
I don’t listen to the TV announcers on the ACC games,because they are all biased. I want someone who is not spreading propaganda for the ACC.
Still waiting on a comment from my man double R.
I wonder if he is enjoying this great Pitt run or if he roots against them so he can go on message boards and talk about how bad they are and how he told everyone they would stink. If the panthers win the games they should to end the year, then they have a really good chance to win the acc regular season. Those odds were 250/1 in November. What a season.
Hail 2 Pitt
What a tough bunch of guys. Many of the best Pitt teams don’t go to UNC and win. H2P!