Panthers win contest fraught with infractions

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The shrill noise came often and at all sorts of moments, as players grabbed rebounds, defended drives to the basket, or charged down the lane.

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The ACC Tournament quarterfinal between fifth-seeded Pitt and fourth-seeded UNC featured the most fouls of any game in the competition with the referees whistling 58 total fouls as each team eclipsed its season-high in the category.

“I think they called it very tight,” Pitt freshman Jamel Artis said. “But somehow guys stepped up.”  

Three Tar Heels fouled out and Talib Zanna, the Pitt redshirt senior who grabbed a career-high 21 rebounds and scored 19 points, did too with just over a minute to go.

UNC was in the process of cutting into a double-digit margin as Zanna sat down.

Pitt held on to win the game 80-75.

The volume of fouls called against the Panthers when they travelled to Chapel Hill to face the Tar Heels a month ago had dictated the way they played for the majority of the game, a 75-71 defeat, according to freshman forward Mike Young.  A task made hard by Pitt trailing.

“It kind of held us back a little bit because we couldn’t be as aggressive as we needed to be,” Young said

But on Friday, the opposition never led, meaning Pitt could play basketball unburdened by thoughts of the next whistle.

”Just play defense how we know how to play defense. If you get the foul, the next guy will step up. ” Young said of his teammates’ and his own mindset on the court. “You don’t want to play the game thinking, ‘I got four fouls so I can’t do this, make this certain play, or get aggressive.’ You just gotta be aggressive. You can’t be passive.“

He was one of three Pitt players to finish with four fouls along with Artis and Lamar Patterson.

Containing 6-foot-9 forward James Michael McAdoo who had his way in the teams’ first meeting , scoring 24 and grabbing 12 rebounds, was a challenge for Pitt’s big men but they managed to limit his effectiveness as McAdoo finished with 15 points and seven rebounds.

Zanna’s energy on both ends of the floor, in particular, stood out throughout the time he played,  the level of which he said did not change as he began to picked fouls, UNC attacked the glass or at any point before he ultimately fouled out.

Responding to a request for comment from the referees, an ACC spokesman said they only comment on specific calls, not entire performances.  Two of the three officials on Friday, Karl Hess and Raymond Styons, worked both Pitt-UNC contests.

Sophomore point guard James Robinson and others faced a manic UNC press as regulation neared its end that caused seven Pitt turnovers in the final seven minutes. He said he and his teammates’ focus was not on their foul situation but on breaking the pressure during this period.

“It didn’t really affect us too much,” he said. “We still had to continue to play hard.”