Somehow, Panthers still had a shot

Despite struggling through most of the game in many different areas, Pitt almost took this one… Despite struggling through most of the game in many different areas, Pitt almost took this one away from the nation’s No. 1 team.

As plagued with fouls as the Panthers had been, as controlling as UConn was on the glass for most of the evening and as poorly as Pitt shot the ball from the outside all night, head coach Jamie Dixon’s squad still had a chance.

Despite being 1-for-17 from 3-point land and being out-rebounded by nearly double-digits all night, Pitt trailed by only one, 72-71, and had possession of the ball as the clock rounded the one-minute mark.

A basket here would have redefined what coaches mean by “stealing one on the road.”

The heist never happened, though.

Sophomore point guard Ronald Ramon, handling the ball in crunch time with senior leader Carl Krauser fouled out of the game, dribbled to the right before being met by two UConn defenders. He threw the ball to fellow sophomore Keith Benjamin, who was looping around behind him. The ball, however, went too far and Benjamin never got it.

UConn superstar Rudy Gay scooped up the loose ball and took off. He weaved through two regressing Pitt defenders and exploded to the basket, softly laying the ball off the glass and in for two as he was fouled. Gay completed the three-point play and Pitt never recovered in falling 80-76.

“We penetrated, but we were too tight,” Dixon said. “Spacing wasn’t good, and a bad decision as far as passing underneath. That and not being under control.”

The idea of Pitt still being in this game seemed unlikely from the onset of the second half. The Panthers (17-2 overall, 6-2 Big East) rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to tie the game at 45 early on.

“If you told me we’d be down 11 on the boards and it’d be a one point game with a minute left, I would have been surprised, especially with our shooting,” Dixon said. “They got a few too many transition baskets early.

Fouls, however, then started to enter the picture.

Junior guard Antonio Graves, fresh off a career-high 19 points against Marquette on Saturday, picked up his fourth foul moments later. Not even three minutes after that, center Aaron Gray, Pitt’s leading rebounder and most consistent offensive player on the night (23 points, 13 rebounds) picked up his third while battling for a high rebound.

Krauser’s fourth came a minute later when he tried to sneak around a UConn player and get a steal. Sticking with the trend, Levon Kendall was whistled for his fourth a few possessions later, surrendering a three-point play to Josh Boone in the process. In all, the Panthers were whistled for 26 fouls, leading two of them to foul out.

To their credit, Dixon’s bunch didn’t let the defensive struggles infect their offense. The Panthers (No. 9 AP/No. 9 ESPN/USA Today) kept up with the Huskies (No. 1 AP/ No. 1 ESPN/USA Today) until the final minute, despite missing their first 16 3-pointers and having to rally to only lose the rebounding deficit to 40-29.

Pitt’s first 3 came with 2:25 left when Ramon curled off a double-screen and hit a 3 off an inbounds pass, making the score 71-69, setting up the frantic sequence with Gay that put the Panthers behind by two possessions. From there, the Panthers either needed UConn (19-1, 7-1) to miss free throws or start hitting 3s themselves.

“That was a really big thing,” freshman Levance Fields, who hit one of Pitt’s two 3s to close the gap to 76-74 as time ticked away, said. “We knew we were going to need a couple of deep shots to stretch us over, but tonight it didn’t fall. We were able to hang in there, though.”

In the end, though, when 3s needed to be traded for 2s, the Panthers simply couldn’t make this road upset happen, falling to 0-13 against No. 1-ranked teams in the program’s 100-year basketball history.

“We made some shots at the end, but we didn’t make them consistently throughout the game,” Dixon said of his team, who is off until a Sunday trip to No. 22 Georgetown. “We need to play better.”