Men’s Basketball: Pitt completes Ireland tour undefeated

The Pitt men’s basketball team may be on a tour of Ireland, but it was Australians that gave… The Pitt men’s basketball team may be on a tour of Ireland, but it was Australians that gave the Panthers the most trouble.

The Melbourne Tigers, an Australian professional team, put Pitt to the test on Friday night in Belfast as the Panthers saw their first ever halftime deficit of the trip. But Pitt used a 14-0 run to start the second half to win 92-76 and remained undefeated.

It seemed it would be another blowout victory for Pitt  when they took a nine point lead with seven minutes remaining in the second quarter, but the Tigers went on a run that would put them ahead 43-42 at the half. And for the first time in all of Pitt’s Ireland games, the Panthers were outscored in a quarter. Melbourne scored 28 points in the second 10 minutes while Pitt only scored 20.

But the Panthers adjusted during halftime, and at the start of the third quarter Gilbert Brown grabbed a rebound and ran the length of the court. He then jumped and slammed down a dunk while flying through the air to wow the crowd of 3,309 fans at the Odyssey Arena. That basket put the Panthers up for good as Pitt would outscore Melbourne 28-9 in the third quarter.

Six Panthers scored in the double digits: Ashton Gibbs and Brown both had 15 points, Nasir Robinson had 14, Travon Woodall had 12, J.J. Moore had 11 and Brad Wanamaker had 10.

Fifty personal fouls were called throughout the game, 28 of which were charged to the Panthers. This was the most physical game of the trip.

The Tigers are one of Australia’s best basketball teams. They won the National Basketball League’s championship four of the past 17 years, and they reached the finals four other times. Former Syracuse player Eric Devendorf recently signed with the Tigers, but he did not attend the game in Belfast.

Pitt finished its Ireland trip Saturday night by defeating the English National Team 82-69 in front of 1,839 fans at the Odyssey Arena.

The 13-point margin of victory may be the smallest of Pitt’s six games on the tour, but most of England’s points came in the fourth quarter, and Pitt held a halftime lead of 52-23. At one point the Panthers were winning by 38 points in the third quarter.

Three Panthers scored 13 points each, including Gibbs, Woodall and Talib Zanna.

Pitt completed the competition part of the tour with a perfect 6-0 record and averaged 93.8 points and 50.8 rebounds per game. After the game, the team headed back to Dublin.

They spent today touring the city and even went to a hurling match as the Gaelic Athletic Association championships were being played this weekend at Dublin’s Croke Park.

The team will return to Pittsburgh today.