Troutman takes over game with five minutes remaining

It’s a trade-off. Defend the forwards, and watch the Pitt guards light up the scoreboard…. It’s a trade-off. Defend the forwards, and watch the Pitt guards light up the scoreboard. Defend the perimeter, and watch the forwards dominate in the paint.

Seton Hall, on Saturday, chose the latter.

“When there are shooters out there, it makes it hard,” Orr said, speaking of Pitt’s high shooting percentage. “We tried to double-team the post a little bit, so we may have taken away the 3, but it also allowed [Chevon] Troutman and [Chris] Taft to have a little more freedom down low. It’s a trade-off.”

Troutman (23) and Taft (14) combined for 37 points in Pitt’s 67-63 come-from-behind victory.

Pitt fell behind Seton Hall, scoring only three points during an 8 minute, 56 second span in the second half. During the Panther drought, the Pirates scored 24 points to build a seven-point lead with 5:12 left in the game.

That’s when Troutman took control, recording 10 points, two steals and one block in the final 4:47, leading the Panthers on a 16-5 run to end the game.

“Chevy is just doing what Chevy does,” Carl Krauser said. “He always finds a way to come through in the clutch. He’s crazy force down low.”

Dixon furthered Krauser’s analysis.

“It’s amazing,” he said of Troutman. “He just continued to battle through and made all the plays. Chevy, obviously he’s done it before, but that one probably tops the list. He did it on the offensive end and on the defensive end.”

Troutman started the run, down 58-51, with a layup in the face of Kelly Whitney. Whitney committed a foul on the basket, his third of the game. Troutman swished the free throw to complete the three-point play.

Following two Taft layups sandwiched around a free throw from Krauser, Troutman scored six points on identical plays that resembled the earlier three-point play. In both instances, Troutman posted up on Whitney, drawing the foul and making the bucket.

He then scored his final point of the game after he stole the ball from Seton Hall, ran down court and drew a foul, sending him to the line again. He missed a rare free throw on his first shot, but made the second to complete his season-high point total.

Troutman’s domination was a result of Seton Hall’s defensive scheme, which held the Pitt guards to a combined five-of-15 from the field, scoring only 20 points.

“They guarded the perimeter pretty good and left us open down low,” Troutman said.

Leaving the forwards open down low led to a 36-20 Pitt advantage in the paint. But Seton Hall had no choice. If it double-teamed the big men inside, Krauser, Ronald Ramon and Antonio Graves would have had more opportunities to throw up 3-pointers — a shot that Pitt has had great success with, shooting 43.6 percent from the 3-point line prior to Saturday’s game.

“It’s hard to guard everything,” Orr said.

But Orr’s team did a good job early, containing the Panthers. Seton Hall worked with several defensive schemes, which had Pitt down 15-10 and shooting 36.4 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes of the first half.

“They went through different things,” Dixon said. “They doubled in the post at times. Chevy really just made the plays at the end. Just came down to him making plays, like he’s done before in the past.”

Troutman was able to make those plays because the Pitt guards recognized that they had to get the ball to the open forwards.

“You just see big guys down there, working as hard as they’re working,” Krauser said. “You have no choice but to give them the ball.”

Krauser further explained that feeding the big forwards is what they like to do.

“That’s our style of play,” Krauser said. “You should see practice, I mean it’s way harder than the games. We battle in practice. We work hard in practice. What we did today was just come out and carry it over to the game. That’s our strength. We like to play physical. We like to bump. We like to play hard and rebound. So if a team [tries to play our style], they’re going to lose, because that’s what we do.”