Ramon scores career high in Pitt win

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Ronald Ramon was not a freshman at Rutgers on Saturday.

The much-matured… PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Ronald Ramon was not a freshman at Rutgers on Saturday.

The much-matured frosh carried the Panthers to a 66-63 overtime win over the Scarlet Knights with his career-high 21 points.

“We’re asking him to not be a freshman. We needed one of those guy to grow up,” Panthers’ head coach Jamie Dixon said of his freshmen.

Ramon was the one, coming off the bench and hitting five 3-pointers to go with his two driving layups.

Despite Ramon’s offensive display, it was sophomore Antonio Graves who provided the win in overtime, scoring four of his seven points in the extra frame.

After Rutgers (6-5 overall, 0-1 Big East) took a 63-62 lead in overtime, Graves scored the go-ahead bucket with 41 seconds remaining.

“I saw the [shot] clock winding down,” Graves said. “I went in with about five [seconds] left, and it worked out for me.”

He was fouled on the play and was sent to the line with the chance to give Pitt (11-2, 1-1) a 2-point lead. He missed the free throw, but on the rebound the ball got tipped out to the left wing to point guard Carl Krauser.

“They don’t try to grab the rebound at the free-throw line; they know they’re bad free-throw shooters, so they just tap it out,” Rutgers coach Gary Waters said. “And I thought that was a key play. That was our last opportunity.”

The clock ticked down to 25 seconds before Ricky Shields fouled Graves. This time, Graves connected on both frees and Rutgers quickly scrambled down the court to attempt a shot.

Guard Quincy Douby, who scored 17 points, attempted an off-balanced 3-pointer from the top of the key, but the shot bounced off the left side of the rim. Pitt forward Chris Taft rebounded it and tossed it out to Krauser.

With nine seconds left, Krauser was sent to the free-throw line to put the game out of reach, but, as a fitting example of how his whole day had been going, he missed both. He finished with only seven points, shooting 2-of-6 from the field.

After the missed free throws, the Scarlet Knights had one last chance, but their desperation shot missed the basket, and Chevon Troutman grabbed the loose ball, holding it until the buzzer sounded.

Troutman scored six points in the first half, which pushed his career total past the 1,000-point plateau. He joins old teammates Julius Page, Jaron Brown, Donatas Zavackas and Brandin Knight in the record books.

Against Rutgers, he did not have a career day, but he still caught the attention of the opponent’s coach.

“There’s a statistic out there that if Troutman scores double-figures, they win,” Waters said, adding, “He got 10 points, they won.”

Troutman also pulled down 13 rebounds for his ninth career double-double.

The Panthers thought they had won the game with a 3-point lead and 7.4 seconds left on the clock.

With the game tied at 55 and 22.6 seconds remaining, Pitt moved the ball around to Ramon, who faked the drive from the 3-point arc and used his forearm to put space between him and his defender, Douby. Ramon quickly put up a 3-point shot.

“It was the last option on the play,” Dixon said.

The ball swished through, giving Pitt the 58-55 lead.

The Scarlet Knights, however, had one last shot in them.

Shields moved the ball quickly to the left wing, and attempted a wide-open 3 after his defender Yuri Demetris slipped. The ball went through the basket with 0.4 seconds remaining.

“Just an unbelievable shot,” Dixon said.

Despite having to go to overtime for the win, Pitt had led throughout most of the game.

Rutgers did not grab its first lead until the 14:05 mark of the second period when Shields buried a 3 from the top of the key to tie the game at 41, and Juel Wiggan hit a 3 from the left wing for the 44-41 lead, part of an 11-0 run.

Rutgers built up a 6-point lead with 5:05 left, but Pitt fought back to tie the game at 55 with 1:08 left on a 3-point play by Taft. He grabbed a Troutman miss and laid it in while being fouled. He then hit the ensuing free throw for one of his 17 points of the day. Taft has now reached double-figure scores in nine consecutive games, averaging 15.2 a game during the stretch.

“Our guys battled through a number of things to come through with a tough victory,” Dixon said. “I thought it was a great test of character.”

Pitt has now won the last seven contests against Rutgers, including the last three at Rutgers’ Louis Brown Athletic Center, something the Panthers had never done before.

Dixon and the Panthers also avoided a three-game losing streak with the win. The last time Pitt lost three straight games was in 2000, when the Panthers dropped four games in a row.