Raw deal: Cards top Pitt

Saturday’s win over a very determined Providence was a hard-fought one for the Pitt… Saturday’s win over a very determined Providence was a hard-fought one for the Pitt basketball team, and it showed.

Several Panthers made their way to the press conference table after the 74-68 win visibly exhausted and emotionally drained. Aaron Gray nursed a back injury that occurred during the game. Jamie Dixon spoke of an injury to Mike Cook and Levon Kendall’s battle with a viral ailment.

Pitt looked like a team surprisingly banged up after only two games in 12 days, and with no changes to the starting lineup, it came as little surprise that the Panthers were still feeling the effects in the early stages of Monday night’s home contest with Louisville.

The Panthers got off to their worst start of the season, committing 15 first-half turnovers and missing 16 of their first 21 field goal attempts, including the first 13 tries from behind the 3-point arc, as the Cardinals built a 36-19 halftime lead.

That deficit proved to be insurmountable for a stunned Pitt team as the Cardinals handed the No. 5 Panthers a 66-53 loss in front of a national audience, Pitt’s worst loss in the Petersen Events Center.

“When you’re down 17 in the first half, you’ve really put yourselves in a problem spot,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said.

Louisville came in desperate to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume with a marquee win. The Cardinals (18-8 overall, 8-4 Big East), who improved to 4-2 in road conference games and won their first game against a ranked opponent in five tries, played like a forlorn team, keeping an astonishing defensive intensity throughout the game.

“We just played great tonight,” Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said. “That was just a great victory on the road.”

The Cardinals used a quick, active zone, along with a successful full-court press, to build their early lead. Pitt turned the ball over every which way, losing it in the backcourt, throwing it away on the blocks and even committing some early offensive fouls, contributing to the exponential frustration of the home crowd.

Things didn’t get much better for the Panthers (22-4, 10-2) if they managed to get the ball into the offensive zone early on.

After Gray made a layup on Pitt’s first possession, the Panthers missed their next eight shots, including a wide-open Sam Young jam that rattled in and out before falling into the arms of a Louisville defender. Pitt wouldn’t get another field goal until Young hit a shot with just over eight minutes gone by.

“It was just a bad day, but we would rather have this happen now than further down the road,” Gray said.

While Louisville didn’t necessarily take the greatest care of the ball either – the Cardinals had 10 first-half turnovers – Rick Pitino’s bunch scored the basketball, hitting early 3s and feeding the ball into 6-foot-11 David Padgett, who scored eight early points and grabbed three first-half rebounds.

“They have great big guys,” Gray said. “David Padgett played very well.”

Padgett, who didn’t play in the Cardinals’ 61-56 Big East Tournament loss to Pitt last season, had the clear edge over the 7-foot Gray, who, like the rest of the Panthers, struggled with turnovers. Gray (two), Graves (three), Cook and Kendall (four each) decimated Pitt’s first-half offense with numerous miscues.

Gray would help Pitt make things more interesting in the early stages of the second half, though, having a hand in the first three Panther field goal attempts, all makes, with two layups and an assist to Cook. Kendall hit a hook shot to make it 38-27. Suddenly there was life in a to-this-point dormant home crowd.

The Cardinals needed this win too badly, though. Louisville settled down and got quality looks inside, attacking the basket and taking Gray literally out of the game.

Although he finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, Gray also played most of the second half in foul trouble. He went to the bench with 14 minutes to go and didn’t return until there was 9:42 to go. By then, Padgett was finishing off a three-point play to give Louisville its biggest lead of the night at 50-32.

Padgett would finish with 16 points on the night as the Cardinals kept a comfortable lead throughout, leading by as many as 20 and never ceasing to lead by fewer than 12 points the rest of the way.

When all was said and done, the Panthers’ stat line read like a horror story – 17-for-48 (35 percent) from the field, 19 turnovers and a 3-for-21 showing from behind the 3-point line. Not your typical evening from a top-five team that held the conference’s best 3-point shooting percentage and nation’s best assist-to-turnover ratio coming in. It doesn’t matter if you were 78-7 at your home arena coming in, those numbers usually add up to a loss.

“I’m still very confident in my coaching staff,” Gray said. “Like I said, how we respond, that will be the true test.”

Pitt will attempt to bounce back against Washington this Saturday at the Pete. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.