Pitt swept away by Storm

NEW YORK CITY – On a day where little went right for the Pitt basketball team, one short… NEW YORK CITY – On a day where little went right for the Pitt basketball team, one short sequence was all it took to show just how out of sync the Panthers really were this afternoon.

Trailing an inspired St. John’s squad 43-36 with little more than nine minutes remaining, a Red Storm player hurled up a shot that bounced high off the rim. Pitt center Aaron Gray went up to snatch the rebound, but before he could secure the ball, he and sophomore Ronald Ramon ran into each other. The ball squirted free and slipped out of bounds, giving possession back to the home team.

St. John’s scored immediately on the inbound to widen its lead.

These were the kind of mistakes and miscues peppered throughout the Panthers’ 55-50 loss to the Red Storm in Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon, a defeat that knocked Pitt from the ranks of the unbeaten. Pitt (15-1 overall, 4-1 Big East) committed 12 turnovers in an atrocious first half, spotting the Johnnies a two-touchdown lead that head coach Jamie Dixon’s squad just couldn’t overcome.

“They deserved to win, they outplayed us,” Dixon said afterwards. “We didn’t play as well as we should have and we didn’t play as well as I thought we would. We put ourselves in a hole, obviously. We did some things better, took care of the ball, moved the ball better, but digging a hole of 12 in a 50-point game is huge.”

Pitt didn’t grace the scoreboard until six minutes had been played, turning the ball over five times over that stretch. In that time, St. John’s (10-6, 3-2) seized a 14-0 lead, the largest deficit Pitt has faced all season, en route to a 31-19 halftime advantage.

“Our guys were ready to play, it was just bad execution,” Dixon said. “Our poor offense led to our defensive deficiencies.”

His team’s first-half turnovers outnumbered the number of made field goals (seven) and assists (four). The miscues, when combined with 26.9-percent shooting, including a dismal 2-for-12 start from 3-point range, paved the way for the big deficit and gave a crowd of 6,942 even more to cheer about.

“We said that they would come out aggressively and have their early runs, and I can’t say that we were surprised,” Dixon said. “I didn’t recognize our team based on how we played early. Impatience offensively, forcing things. It just put us in holes.”

Despite the early deficits and struggled shooting from leading scorer Carl Krauser – who hit only five of his 17 shots, including an 0-for-5 stint from behind the arc, on his way to 10 points – Pitt almost stole a win beneath the lights of the Garden.

After the Gray-Ramon fiasco helped the Red Storm up its lead, the home team scored again to claim a 47-36 advantage. From there, however, St. John’s went on a dry spell of its own, surrendering a 12-0 run – capped by a Krauser finger roll – to give Pitt its only lead of the game at 48-47 with 2:39 remaining.

“You knew [Pitt] was going to make a run,” St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts said.

That lead, however, was short-lived.

St. John’s got the free-throw line down the stretch, taking a 51-48 lead. Krauser bricked a 3 but Gray bailed the Panthers out with an offensive rebound that he put back in trim the lead to 51-50. The Red Storm hit a pair of free throws to take a 53-50 lead, leaving the Panthers with one last opportunity to tie.

Pitt pushed the ball quickly up the floor, leaving Krauser with the final shot. He pump faked, waited for his defender to zip past him and then heaved up a good look at the tying shot. It bounced off the rim, though, and the Red Storm secured the rebound. Pitt fouled Phil Missere who stepped to the line and sunk two free throws to close out the game, sending the fans at the Garden into a frenzied state.

When the final buzzer sounded, fans stormed the court to celebrate their team’s second consecutive win over a ranked opponent. St. John’s topped then-No. 15 Louisville, 68-56, on Tuesday.

“I think they have confidence in one another,” Roberts said of his team, which won its third straight game. “They are getting used to each other.”

Dixon’s team doesn’t have any time to dwell on the loss, however. No. 20 Syracuse, losers of two straight, come to town for a nationally televised affair tonight. Last season, Pitt swept the Orange, rallying twice to down a Syracuse team ranked inside the top 10 for both games.

“We are just going to get ready for Syracuse and be ready to practice and to go on Monday,” he said.

Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. tonight and the game will be an ESPN broadcast.

Loose Balls: The Panthers were out-rebounded for the first time since their game against DePaul on Jan. 12 – Aaron Gray, the Big East leader in double-doubles, failed to get one for the second time in three games – At halftime, St. John’s honored 10 of its most famous players including Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Lloyd “Sonny” Dove – Before the win over Pitt, St. John’s hadn’t defeated back-to-back ranked opponents since 2001-02 – The Red Storm have held their last three opponents to under 37-percent shooting from the field – Pitt has lost on the road to St. John’s for the sixth straight time – Pitt has now dropped three games in a row at Madison Square Garden (two regular-season meetings against St. John’s, and a loss to Villanova in the opening round of last year’s Big East Tournament) – St. John’s entered the game with the seventh-best scoring defense in the nation.