DURHAM, N.C. — Pitt shocked No. 7 Duke on Saturday evening with an 80-76 upset win inside of historic Cameron Indoor Stadium. It took an incredible effort for Pitt in all aspects of the game, but what really separated the Panthers from the Blue Devils last night were two standout individual performances.
Blake Hinson stood on his business with an epic 24-point game, where he went a perfect 7-of-7 from three-point range, and got the entire college basketball world talking about him. It was a vintage Hinson moment, but perhaps what took the Panthers a step further against the Blue Devils was the showing by one of Pitt’s freshmen guards.
And no, we're not talking about four-time ACC Rookie of the Week, Bub Carrington. Rather, it was Jaland Lowe who propelled Pitt forward against a top-10 team. The freshman from Texas looked right at home playing in one of college basketball’s toughest environments for the very first time.
Lowe scored 17 points, dished out six assists, and did not commit one turnover. The guard scored 11 of his points after halftime, six in the final minute alone, and of course Lowe’s game-defining play happened with 43 seconds left.
Lowe got the ball on the wing with Duke’s best player, Kyle Filipowski, guarding him. He sized up the Duke seven-footer for a moment then calmly buried a three-pointer right in his eye to increase Pitt’s advantage to 75-71.
“Well, we tried to run a play and it kind of broke down,” Lowe recounted of the big shot. “I got the ball in my hands, so I had a matchup that I liked. I’ve been in a similar situation in high school and it brought back memories of that and I knew what I was going to do.”
Lowe was gently reminded that hitting that shot, in that arena, over that player was not like anything he saw in high school basketball and he got a chuckle out of that, but perhaps that’s exactly the most impressive thing about him. The moment was not too big, and for a guy like Hinson, he recognized that about the young point guard.
Hinson led the team with 24 points, but did not make a field goal in the final six minutes and Pitt prevailed anyway without its star making shots down the stretch. It was guys like Lowe who stepped up and got Pitt to the finish line and for Hinson to see that kind of help is something that should not be ignored.
“Man, that’s good to see from somebody like me who was trying to figure out if I should shoot this or should I move it," Hinson said of his teammate’s big moment. “Then I moved it and I give it to a freshman and he does something very clutch and made me very happy and proud of him. That’s good and that’s good for everybody to see and for him to feel, so next time he gets in that moment he’ll do it again.”
This season has been a learning experience for Lowe, but the further we get into it, the more growth he has been showing. He was inserted into the starting lineup four games ago due to an injury to Ishmael Leggett, but even since Leggtt’s return, Jeff Capel has kept Lowe in the starting five.
Lowe has produced 13.7 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.7 rebounds per game in his four starts. He has been making shots, setting up teammates, and protecting the basketball. For Pitt’s head coach, he isn’t surprised about Lowe’s surge of late.
“Sometimes, especially for a freshman, it takes a little bit,” Capel said of Lowe’s emergence. “He was a little bit banged up and we talked about it. He had an issue in the summer, got hurt, and was out for a little bit. I think he’s gotten healthy and has gotten his pop back, but obviously the game experience, playing time, all those things have helped him grow in his confidence.”
Lowe is stacking strong performances on top of each other and it is just building further confidence for Pitt’s budding young guard.
“The whole team believes in me,” Lowe said of his strong stretch of play. “My teammates trusted me a lot. Early in the season I wasn’t as healthy as I am now, just some stuff that happened on a previous injury, but I’m feeling great and my teammates have 100% trust in me and I do it for all of them.”
After a few minutes of interviewing after the game, Lowe finally embraced what he did with that ice cold three-pointer over Duke’s best player. It’s a shot he won’t live down for a long time, either.
“Number one, no doubt,” Lowe said of where that shot ranks in his career. “I mean, in this environment I dreamed of possibly playing here as a kid and to play against them and hit this shot in front of this crowd for our team, man it was amazing.”
Lowe seized an opportunity presented to him, and so did this Pitt team. The Panthers had lost four out of five prior to Saturday night and entered the game as decided underdogs, but they found a way to pull off a stunner. The challenge now is harnessing that energy into Tuesday’s game against Georgia Tech.
“Well, we’ve got to enjoy tonight,” Capel said in the postgame. “We’ll head down to Atlanta tomorrow and play against another outstanding team. Tough. Damon Stoudamire has done a great job. We’ll start thinking about that tomorrow. We have to be tough, together, and our spirit has to be right. If we do that, then we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
