Pitt falls short against Virginia

Pitt went from competitive to getting blown out to nearly pulling it off against Virginia at the Petersen Events Center Saturday afternoon, but Ryan Murphy’s would-be game-tying three-point shot never got off and the Panthers lost 59-56.

With just under four minutes left in the second half, the game looked over for Pitt. The Panthers trailed by 13 as Virginia’s defense stymied Pitt’s offense and forced several extended scoring droughts.

Then the tide turned. Terrell Brown converted an old-school three-point play; then Pitt forced a turnover out of a press defense and Trey McGowens turned it into a long-range three-pointer to create some energy.

Pitt kept the pressure on Virginia, both offensively and defensively. As the Cavaliers tried to sit on their lead, the Panthers attacked. Au’Diese Toney converted an and-one to cut the lead to six before Xavier Johnson scored back-to-back baskets while attacking the basket.

The second of Johnson’s baskets drew a foul, but he missed the free throw to keep the score 58-56. Virginia’s Braxton Key then hit one of two free throws with four seconds on the clock, giving Pitt a chance to tie the score with a single shot.

The Panthers’ play out of the ensuing timeout didn’t work, though, as Murphy couldn’t get the shot up before the final buzzer.

Johnson finished with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, while Toney had 13 (6-of-8 from the floor) and Brown produced nine points and nine rebounds.

In the first half, Pitt played the Cavaliers to a 31-29 score at halftime, with Virginia leading after shooting 52% from the floor and making 4-of-11 from beyond the arc. But Pitt countered that shooting performance by scoring 11 points on the visitors’ eight turnovers and also outrebounding the Cavs 17-11, including seven offensive rebounds.

The Panthers also got a fairly balanced offensive attack in the first half, with five players scoring at least four points. But the downside was that Johnson played just 11 minutes after picking up two fouls.

But despite Johnson’s absence for a stretch of eight minutes in the half, his teammates kept their heads above water. Toney and McGowens scored four points each in that stretch, including a shot clock-beating long jump shot from Toney. And after Johnson returned, freshman Justin Champagnie kept the game close by converting a put-back on his own missed layup and then draining a three-point shot.

The two-point score at halftime didn’t last, though. After being so good on the glass in the first half, Pitt got beat considerably in that area. In the first seven and a half minutes of the second half, the Cavaliers held an 11-5 advantage in rebounding. To make matters worse, Pitt’s bad habit of a long scoring drought popped up, too, as the Panthers went scoreless for more than six minutes.

During that stretch, Virginia scored 11 points, turning a 33-31 lead into 44-33 - a significant scoring advantage that looms large in the wake of a three-point final.

The loss drops Pitt’s record to 15-13 overall and 6-11 in the ACC. The Panthers are off until Wednesday night when they will host Syracuse at the Petersen Events Center for a 7 pm tip.