Free throw shooting aids in win

Following its win against Providence last night, the Pitt men’s basketball team is now 16-2… Following its win against Providence last night, the Pitt men’s basketball team is now 16-2 overall and 6-1 in the Big East. The Panthers are the No. 4-ranked team in the country in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls, and they haven’t lost a game at the brand new Petersen Events Center. It goes without saying that a team with these kinds of numbers doesn’t have many weaknesses that can be easily exploited.

The Panthers, however, aren’t invincible, and their Achilles’ heel this season has made its presence felt about 10 feet from the basket.

Pitt is one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the Big East, shooting just more than 60 percent from the foul line. In their 67-65 loss to Syracuse on Saturday, the Panthers shot a dismal 14-for-29 from the free-throw line at a 48.3 percent clip.

Against the Friars on Tuesday, Pitt showed that it can win not only despite its free throw shooting, but because of it.

“Making our foul shots was huge,” Pitt head coach Ben Howland said. “We’ve got to focus more at the foul line in practice, and I think that we did that yesterday. And we’re going to continue to do that.”

Pitt was almost perfect from the foul line in the first half, going eight-for-nine for an 88.9 free throw percentage. The Panthers’ foul shot production decreased in the last 20 minutes of the game, but they hit key free throws down the stretch to seal what turned out to be a close victory against the Friars. In the end, Pitt got to the line 32 times, sinking 23 of their attempts for a 71.9 free throw percentage.

Jaron Brown led the way for the Panthers, going eight-for-nine from the stripe to go with his three field goals. And Brandin Knight, who is a 51-percent foul shooter, went four-for-seven from the foul line, hitting most of his shots in the last two minutes of the game.

The Friars were constantly fouling Knight in the waning minutes of the second half in order to stop the clock and try to cut into Pitt’s slim lead. When Knight missed a crucial foul shot with 2:44 to go, the Petersen Events Center crowd, usually silent when a Pitt player steps to the line, cheered Knight in encouragement. Knight proceeded to hit four of his next five.

Knight said that the unusual pop from the crowd during his free throw shooting neither helped nor hurt his concentration.

“Really I don’t pay attention to [the noise],” Knight said. “When I’m on the court, it’s just myself, the team and the opposition. I rarely pay attention to all the exterior things that are going on.”

Carl Krauser, who made his first career start for the Panthers, admitted that Pitt focused more intensively on its free-throw shooting following the Syracuse loss.

“We shot for 45 minutes in practice, and we usually shot 50 shots or more,” Krauser said. “So we just really put our focus into free throws and knocked them down in practice, and it showed in tonight’s game.”

Other notables for the Panthers from the fouls stripe were Donatas Zavackas (three-for-four), Ontario Lett (two-for-three) and Chevon Troutman (four-for-five). Troutman was a 47 percent foul shooter last season.

The Panthers will need to continue to improve their team foul shooting when they travel to Notre Dame Sunday in a battle for first place in the Big East West Division.