3-Pointers: Three takeaways from Pitt's 76-74 win over North Carolina

The Pitt Panthers upset the 25th ranked North Carolina Tar Heels at the Petersen Events Center on Friday afternoon by a score of 76-74. Pitt used a late surge to grab a lead with four minutes remaining, and outplayed the preseason ACC favorites down the stretch to secure the win. Pitt now owns a 10-4 record on the season and the team is a perfect 3-0 in the ACC.

Here are three things that stood out from Friday’s game.

A Statement Win

Pitt’s victory over North Carolina on Friday was a big one for Jeff Capel’s program. The Tar Heels were a five-point favorite coming into the game and were ranked 25th in the most recent AP Poll. As we all know, North Carolina is probably a bit better than that. They have four starters off of a team that went to the national title game a season ago. The Tar Heels also featured the top two scorers in the ACC entering Friday. This team was preseason No. 1 in the land for a reason.

Although, that 25th ranking in the polls is warranted for the time being. The Heels lost some games in November and have not lived up to the preseason hype, but on sheer talent alone this is a very good basketball team and one that is still capable of winning the ACC and also able to make another deep run in March.

Pitt just beat them and once again they found a new way to win. Jeff Capel’s team is not following the exact script many had envisioned for them in the preseason. John Hugley was supposed to push for All-ACC status and be the catalyst, but this team has taken on a different form. Hugley has mostly been a non-factor this season and missed a third straight game on Friday.

Pitt’s success this season has mostly been driven by the play of its backcourt and the team's outside shooting. Those components were challenged on Friday by the Tar Heels, and yet the team still found a way.

The outside shooting was not there as Pitt went just 5-of-25 from deep, but despite those outside shooting woes, Pitt managed to hang around within striking distance and eventually made a push with four minutes to go in the game. The Panthers used some tough defense and limited to North Carolina to just two field goals in the final six minutes of the game, both of which came in the closing seconds.

Pitt also outworked the Tar Heels inside. The Panthers held a 42-26 advantage at points in the paint and after getting crushed in the glass in the first half, Pitt out rebounded North Carolina 21-16 after halftime. It was a gritty effort and it took all 40 minutes to get it done.

Pitt was picked 14th in the ACC in the preseason. Capel is potentially (likely?) coaching for his job this season. Not many people gave this team a chance at the onset of the season and the 1-3 start did not help, but the Panthers have won four in a row and nine of the last ten games.

I don’t care where North Carolina is right now, at the end of the year this could, and likely will be a big win for this Pitt team. There are 17 games to go in this season, but it’s hard not to be impressed with how this team is finding ways to win right now.

All About Burton

The game between Pitt and North Carolina featured four of the top 10 scorers in the ACC. The Tar Heels boasted the big three of Caleb Love and Armando Bacot, the top two scorers in the ACC, along with RJ Davis the tenth leading scorer in the league. Blake Hinson of Pitt was also a top ten scorer entering Friday, but the star the shined the brightest in this game was Jamarius Burton.

The 6’4” senior guard from Charlotte was outstanding in Pitt’s 76-74 win. Burton finished with a game-high 31 points, which is a new career-best for him. Not only did Burton fill the scoring column, he did it with efficiency. The senior guard was 14-of-17 from the floor and scored 15 in the first half and 16 in the second. North Carolina rotated defenders on him, and at times even had 6’9” Leeky Black on him.

It didn’t matter who was on him, Burton kept doing his thing.

North Carolina second year head coach Hubert Davis said as much in his postgame press conference. “He's strong and it's a problem,” Davis said of Burton. “You put a bigger guy on him, he's quick enough and small enough to go around them. You put a smaller guy on him, he's big enough to post them up and get to spot and so we just didn't have an answer for him defensively in a one-on-one situation.”

Burton came into the game averaging 14.4 points per game. He has been a regular this year at churning out double figure games, but he was actually coming off of a season-low 9 points in Pitt’s last game against Syracuse. Burton looked unfazed by that and was locked-in from the onset, and his confidence continued to grow throughout the game.

Burton was the only player in the eight-man rotation from Friday that endured Pitt’s 11-win last season. He is on his third stop in his college basketball career and a senior, Burton just seems willing to do what it takes to carry this team and make some noise. He did plenty of that on Friday.

Hinson Heats Up Late

Blake Hinson entered Friday’s game as the reigning ACC Player of the Week after putting up a 25-point game in Pitt’s win over Syracuse on December 20th. The 6’7” junior has been Pitt’s best player this season, and also has been one of the best in the league. He came into the game as one of two players that was top 10 in the ACC in both scoring and rebounding.

Pitt trailed North Carolina 40-34 at halftime and Hinson had only five points. Given the outside shooting struggles and the lack of scoring from Hinson, Pitt did not seem to be in a place to really make a run at North Carolina.

Hinson eventually got it going and the team was able to feed off of that. He seemed to spark Pitt’s late push as well. North Carolina stretched the lead to nine points, but Hinson connected on a three-pointer with 11:05 remaining to make it 55-49, and that shot seemed to get the crowd back into the game.

Capel said that three ‘got us going’ in his postgame press conference. That shot was big, but one later in the game proved to be much bigger. In a 67-all deadlock, Hinson confidently stepped up and hit the go-ahead shot. He scored 7 of the final 9 points for the Panthers.

Hinson 4-of-14 shooting day is one to forget, but how he played down the stretch won’t be forgotten in the story of this game. Good players find ways to impact the game even if they aren’t at their best. Hinson finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds. At the end of the day, the stats got there. It wasn’t always pretty, but Pitt can live with those shooting struggles if Hinson can make winning plays in crunch time. He delivered some big shots, but more importantly an ACC win.