Pitt learning how to win

Saturday, 19 January 2013 16:19

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

After dropping games against Cincinnati, Rutgers and Marquette that were winnable in the final minutes or overtime, the Panthers have come through in the clutch in their past two wins over Villanova and Connecticut.

This afternoon, the Panthers blew a 13-point halftime lead, but they gathered themselves in the final minutes and pulled away from the Huskies, who had tied the score with a little more than four minutes left.

On Wednesday night, the Panthers blew a five-point lead late in the Villanova game, but then scored stormed back to score the final 15 points to win that game, 58-43.

“In the games we lost we let it go at the end,” junior forward Lamar Patterson said. “Today we fought through and got the victory.  

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said the difference was Pitt’s ability to rebound in both games. They were plus-12 on the boards at Villanova and plus-11 against Connecticut.

“You like to finish every game, but we’ve lost a few,” Dixon said. “When you lose, you remember those ones a little more. They made shots to tie it up. Down the stretch, we came up with the rebounds and defended well. And we got a couple of big jump shots by a number of different guys. That was key for us. I think the rebounding, if you continue to do that, good things will happen. Our numbers have been good, but when they’re not that’s when we come up short. That’s what we need to do. That’s who we are.”

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Big Lar, January 20, 2013 - 05:44 PM

I thought the perimeter defense n the first half was outstanding against a very talanted and quick pair of UCONN guards. There was little penetration and UCONN was forced into taking a lot of outside shots that they did not hit.

Boatright finally began to have success driving to the basket in the second half - maybe you just can't stop someone that quick for an entire game. Napier was never a factor in the game. I wonder if he was not fully healthy. If he wasn't, too bad for UCONN.

Pitt made all of the big plays at the end of the game to pull it out. Maybe some of that was learned in the comebacks against Detroit and Oakland earlier in the year. Oh, wait, the preconference schedule was so weak there could not possibly have been any benefit from it.

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