Early Exit

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – It looked like Pitt finally got its break.

Trailing upstart,… AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – It looked like Pitt finally got its break.

Trailing upstart, 13th-seeded Bradley by five with three minutes and change left, the Braves tried to milk the clock and get a quality shot. Star center Patrick O’Bryant drove to the basket and threw an errant pass back to the middle of the court, one that Pitt freshman Levance Fields picked off.

He chugged his way down the left side of the court before tangling bodies with Bradley’s Daniel Ruffin in Pitt’s offensive zone. The ball squirted loose and out of bounds, but before that, the whistle shrilled.

A foul had been called on Fields, giving the ball back to Bradley. The Braves scored on their next possession to extend their lead.

This was only one of several instances where it looked like the Panthers were going to make a run at advancing to their fourth Sweet 16 in the past five years. But signs only point to the right direction, they don’t get you there. Bradley made enough plays down the stretch to stave off any Pitt rally, stunning the fifth-seeded Panthers, 72-66, Sunday afternoon in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“They’re a very good team, they’re balanced and they’re well-coached,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said after the loss.

After shocking No. 4-seeded Kansas in the first round Friday night, the Braves (22-10) got the Panthers in early foul trouble and continued to pound the ball inside to O’Bryant, who powered his way to a game- and career-high 28 points for the Braves. Marcellus Sommerville, who torched the Jayhawks for 21 points – including five 3-pointers – Friday night added 18 for Bradley, which will advance to the Sweet 16 in Oakland, Calif. on Thursday night.

“He got them in a number of ways,” Dixon said of O’Bryant’s points. “It was a combination of things. We didn’t want anybody scoring 28 points on us.”

Like their win against Kansas on Friday, the unheralded Braves, who received an at-large bid to the tournament after falling in their conference championship game, built a big lead before having to hold on to win this one, getting help from a cold Panther offense early on.

Two days after breaking the school record for field-goal percentage in a single game, the Panthers appeared as out of sync as could be. Dixon’s squad committed five early turnovers – three by senior guard Carl Krauser – and missed its first seven shots in falling behind 16-4.

Even Ronald Ramon, Pitt’s sharpshooter, who hit all of his field goal attempts in Friday’s 79-64 demolition of Kent State, airballed his first shot, sending the pro-Bradley Palace of Auburn Hills crowd into a frenzy.

The Braves built their early lead with an opportunistic defense and a methodical offense, getting both of Pitt’s big men into early foul trouble with center Aaron Gray picking up his second foul midway through the first half. Levon Kendall picked up his second two minutes later on a questionable pushing call.

Bradley used the opening of the lane to push its lead back to 12 with a layup before the Panthers finally found their legs, using a quick 12-1 spurt to climb within two at 19-18. Fields capped off the run with two of his team-high eight first-half points coming on a driving layup to his left.

The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament runners up made enough plays on the offensive glass, however – scoring 11 second-chance points on 11 first-half offensive rebounds – to stay in front. A Fields 3-pointer brought Pitt within 30-29 at halftime, a fairly positive predicament for Pitt considering that it had six first-half turnovers and four starters saddled with at least two fouls in the opening 20 minutes.

“We didn’t out-rebound them, we didn’t get more free throws than our opponent,” Dixon said of his team’s deficiencies.

Pitt’s momentum carried over into the early parts of the second half, getting a Krauser layup and a Gray shot inside to capture a 33-30 lead, the first time the Panthers had been in front all game.

Bradley, however, wasted no time in responding.

Sommerville scored on the next series down before O’Bryant hit a layup to give the lead back to the Braves for good. Those were the beginning stages of a 19-4 Bradley run that began when Gray picked up a technical foul for slamming the basketball into the ground after being called for a five-second violation. Dixon disagreed, saying he didn’t see a count on for the five seconds.

“That put them up one point,” Gray said of Bradley hitting both technical free throws. “I felt we were very confident that we were still going to win the basketball game.”

“I thought we came out and executed well in the beginning of the second half, we made some shots but then we missed some and they came down and made some,” Dixon said. “The tide definitely turned on us.”

Bradley stayed in control from there, never ceding the lead.

O’Bryant got an easy dunk and then Tony Bennet hit a long jumper from the right corner as the lead swelled to 14 at 53-39 with a little more than seven minutes remaining. The Panthers never seriously threatened again, as Bradley used its large free throw advantage – the Braves hit 26 of 32 free throw attempts to Pitt’s 10-for-11 shooting from the line – and 16 offensive rebounds to prevent Pitt from climbing within five the rest of the way.

“We talked about pride on the glass,” Bradley coach Jim Les said. “We couldn’t give them easy second opportunities. Those two were the big points of emphasis.”

Krauser scored 17 for the Panthers in his final game, second on the team only to Fields’ career-high 18. Pitt’s season ends at 25-8.