Men’s basketball: Pitt upsets Connecticut, stays undefeated in Big East

All Nasir Robinson needed was one shot.

With the Pitt men’s basketball team trailing No. 15… All Nasir Robinson needed was one shot.

With the Pitt men’s basketball team trailing No. 15 Connecticut 49-48, Robinson drove from the left corner and leapt under the basket, tucked the ball close to his chest and then laid it in for his only two points of the night.

Robinson’s only basket gave the No. 20 Panthers a 50-49 lead they wouldn’t relinquish en route to a 67-57 win at Connecticut last night. The win improves Pitt to 14-2 overall and 4-0 in the Big East, joining No. 4 Villanova as the only undefeated team left in conference play.

Leading up to Robinson’s trip underneath the hoop, the Huskies (11-5, 2-3) erased a 10-point second-half lead by the Panthers. A 12-3 run by Connecticut cut the lead to 46-45 with 10:05 to go in the game. After Connecticut’s Kemba Walker missed a shot, Gavin Edwards pulled down the offensive board and kicked it out to Jerome Dyson. The Big East player of the year candidate drove into the lane, spun and connected on a lay-up to give the Huskies a 47-46 lead with about nine and a half minutes remaining. It was the Huskies first lead since they were up 5-4 a few minutes into the game.

A Wanamaker lay-up gave Pitt the lead back on the ensuing possession, but then Edwards backed down Gary McGhee and hit a turnaround left-handed hook shot to give Connecticut a 49-48 lead.

After Robinson hit the go-ahead lay-up, Dyson missed a jumper on the other end of the court. Jermaine Dixon pulled down the rebound and passed to Robinson in transition. The Panthers had a three-on-one fast break, with Dixon ultimately making a lay-up to bring the lead up to 52-49.

Dyson, who finished with 14 points, hit a shot to bring the Pitt lead back down to one. On Pitt’s next possession, Ashton Gibbs connected from beyond the arc, and the Huskies never got within four points again.

Gibbs tied with Wanamaker and Connecticut’s Stanley Robinson for a game-high 19 points. Coming into the game, Gibbs was third in the Big East making 2.4 3-pointers per game, but that average will increase after the sophomore went 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. Wanamaker led all players hitting nine free throws on 10 attempts, including going 6 of 6 in the last two and a half minutes of the game to keep Pitt ahead. The Panthers made 85 percent of their free throws compared to 46 percent by the Huskies.

Gilbert Brown scored 11 off the bench for the Panthers. In his five games since returning from an academic suspension, Brown has scored at least 10 points in three of them and the Panthers are 5-0.

Even though the Huskies had a height advantage, the Panthers out-rebounded Connecticut 36-31, including 15-11 on the offensive end. McGhee led the Panthers with nine rebounds, while Dixon had seven and Robinson had six, four offensive.

Even in victory, it wasn’t a perfectly played game for Pitt. The Panthers shot 39 percent from the field, while Connecticut made 46 percent of its shots from the field. Neither team did a good job holding onto the ball. The Panthers had 10 assists to 12 turnovers and the Huskies turned the ball over 13 times while also dishing out just 10 assists.

After a perfect three-game road trip, the Panthers are home for the first time since Dec. 28’s victory against DePaul. They host Louisville (12-5, 3-1) this Saturday at the Petersen Events Center at noon.