No Pushovers

MILWAUKEE – Physical basketball.

Toughness and grit are the cornerstones to a grind-it-out… MILWAUKEE – Physical basketball.

Toughness and grit are the cornerstones to a grind-it-out and wear-you-down Pitt Panther basketball game plan built on solid defense that had them ranked ninth in the country heading into Saturday night’s game against Marquette.

Physical basketball is not what the Panthers were able to play against the Golden Eagles Saturday night, however.

Coach Tom Crean and Marquette were able to neutralize the Panther inside duo of juniors Aaron Gray and Levon Kendall and get them into early foul trouble while taking over the game with finesse en route to topping the Panthers 84-82 in front of 19,007 fans in the Bradley Center.

“I don’t know if it was bad fouls on my part, but I have to pick my spots to be more aggressive,” Gray said. “I have to be smarter-I was never really able to get into the flow of the game.”

Gray tallied two fouls in his first five minutes of play, causing head coach Jamie Dixon to sit him until 3:25 remained in the first half.

“When guys are in foul trouble it changes some of the things you have to do,” Dixon said.

“We had to change up some matchups-it was a different game no question. [Foul trouble] changed what we wanted to do but you have to deal with it.”

The lack of inside power really hurt Pitt (20-4 overall, 9-4 Big East) in the first half, allowing the Golden Eagles to outscore them 20-14 in the paint.

But the Golden Eagles (18-8, 8-5) were scoring both inside and out, shooting 50 percent on 5-for-10 shooting from behind the arc in the first half.

Marquette’s Steve Novak started a red hot 5-of-8 from the field, including a 3-for-6 start from behind the arc to pace the Golden Eagles with 15 points in the first.

“When Steve gets on a roll it helps our team a lot,” Crean said after the game. “He’s played so aggressive and [the team] feeds off his energy.”

And just as Pitt’s junior guard Antonio Graves came off the bench to stun the Golden Eagles in the two teams’ last meeting at the Petersen Events Center last month, Marquette’s Wesley Matthews turned in a clutch performance when freshman guard Dominic James left the game early.

Matthews shot 4-for-5 from the field, including a big 3-pointer to cap a 7-0 Marquette run, forcing Dixon to call a timeout with 3:39 left in the half.

Pitt, however, was able to get much-needed perimeter shooting from senior Carl Krauser, sophomore Ronald Ramon and freshman Levance Fields to force five ties and five lead changes in the first half.

Fields had 10 points in nine minutes, the most crucial of which came on a running jumper as time expired to cut the deficit to three and send the Panthers in the locker room only licking minor wounds at 44-41.

Looking fresh, both teams came out gunning in the second half, and Pitt regained the lead off consecutive jumpers by Kendall and Krauser.

That was the last time the Panthers would be ahead, however.

Marquette, led by Novak’s 27 total points, was ahead by as many as 10 points with half of the second period gone by.

“They set some good screens so they got him open and got some good looks,” Fields said. “A couple of shots we thought we contested pretty good but [Novak] is a great player so he made them.”

But clutch players come through when their team needs them, and Krauser did exactly that for Pitt down the stretch.

He started by slicing through the left side of Marquette’s defense, getting to the hoop, getting fouled and making the bucket and the free throw to bring Pitt back within three with around four minutes to play.

One minute later, Krauser looked at the Golden Eagle zone from the other side of the floor, decided to drive baseline and completed the play with an unbelievable mid-air switch to the left hand layin that dropped the draws and silenced the mouths of the entire capacity crowd.

Marquette had their very own clutch player, too. Novak took a feed from Ousmane Barro and calmly sank another three, but was answered right back by Ramon to pull Pitt within one at 81-80 with 1:52 to play.

After a Marquette turnover on the ensuing possession, Gray was fouled and went to the line with a chance to tie or put the Panthers ahead with 24 seconds left.

But he missed. Twice.

Marquette got the rebound and forced Pitt to foul exactly who they didn’t want to, Novak.

“He’s missed one free throw in 14 months,” Crean said. “We like to have the ball in his hands.”

The senior hit both shots, and Ronald Ramon’s final 3-point attempt fell short while Gray added a meaningless layup in the game’s final stages.

“We had our chance,” Fields said. “The ball just didn’t bounce our way.”

Dixon felt the same way. “We shot 74 percent in the second half,” Dixon said. “I was happy with our execution-we make a free throw, they miss a free throw, we’re very happy.”

Loose Balls-Saturday’s attendance of 19,007 was the largest crowd to ever watch a college basketball game in the state of Wisconsin-Novak has hit 57 3s in Big East conference play with three games left, leaving him six behind former UConn star Ray Allen’s record of 63 -Novak hasn’t missed a free throw since January, 2005-Marquette freshman Dominic James had 16 points and six assists after being shaken up early-The win is Marquette’s second over a ranked opponent in four days.