The Pitt basketball team fell to 3-7 on the season following a 56-52 defeat to the hands of Monmouth on Sunday evening at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers took a 2-0 lead on a William Jeffress layup, but trailed the remainder of the game to the program from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

After a dreadful first half, Pitt had a late push and had it down to a one possession game despite trailing by as much as 19 points earlier in the half. Jamarius Burton buried a jumper with :28 seconds remaining to make it 55-52, but Monmouth put the game away in the closing seconds.

The Hawks were not in the bonus, so Pitt had to extend added effort to even put them on the foul line. Eventually Monmouth buried the front end of a one and one to put the game out of reach with five seconds left in the game.

Burton ended up leading the Panthers in scoring with 15 points, with 13 coming after halftime. John Hugley finished with a 14 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth double double of the season. Femi Odukale provided 14 points off the bench. No other Panthers reached double figures on a dreadful shooting night for Jeff Capel's team.

Pitt was just 6-of-27 from the floor in the first half while committing nine turnovers as a team. Following the Jeffress basket to open the game, Pitt missed 13 consecutive field goal attempts while falling behind the Hawks 21-8 in the early going.

The Panthers finished just 34% from the field. The shooting struggles came from all levels. Pitt was just 2-of-13 from three-point land. Pitt was also just 9-of-26 from layups on the game.

Monmouth, coached by King Rice, improved to 8-2 on the season with the win over the Panthers. The Hawks were led by the hot-shooting George Papas, who finished with 17 points and made four shots from behind the three-point line.

The story of the night for the Panthers was clearly the shooting woes from the first half, but despite the large deficit they created, Pitt had two second half runs to make it somewhat interesting.

The Panthers started to show some life with a quick 9-0 outburst led by two baskets from Jamarius Burton. That run made it 46-37 with 8:36 left in the game. After Monmouth built back up the lead, Pitt started to carve into it. The Panthers found some life shooting and started to switch up the defense a bit, which frustrated the Hawks and led to that final push, Monmouth shot 48% in the first half, and just 30.8% in the second half.

Pitt continued to tinker with the lineup throughout the game, and even started Onye Ezeakudo for a second game in a row. The senior walk-on struggled with 0 points and three turnovers. Chris Payton, the seldom used junior college transfer, started the second half. He totaled 2 points and 2 rebounds.

The Panthers had seemingly turned a corner in recent weeks, as they had a pair of one-point losses to power-five competition in Minnesota and Virginia, and while they came up on the wrong end the team appeared ready to compete in both games. Capel's squad also won a game against Colgate earlier this week, but on Sunday evening the team came out totally flat.

The game against Monmouth was the opening game for the Gotham Classic. The Panthers are traveling to New York City on Saturday for a noon tip against St. John's at Madison Square Garden. The Red Storm are currently 8-2 on the season. St. John's is led by Julian Champagnie, a one time Pitt target and the twin brother of former Pitt star Justin Champagnie.