Men’s Basketball: Pitt’s season ends with loss to Florida Gators in round of 32

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The Florida Gators had the ball with 3.5 seconds left in the first half with a two-point lead. It was inbounded behind halfcourt to Scottie Wilbekin, who instantly drove past Pitt guard Chris Jones, launched off one foot and hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer as time expired to put his team up by five at the half.

It wasn’t a deciding blow, like a number of the shots sunk against Pitt this season, but the SEC Player of the Year himself thought that it boosted his team to the Gators’ 61-45 victory against the Panthers in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. 

Against the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, the Panthers held their own for a while and led 15-13 at one point in the first half. But Florida’s more athletic and talented players eventually took over the game in the second half. 

“They outplayed us,” senior forward Talib Zanna said. “They out-executed, everything. They got to the loose balls. We didn’t get it done.”

Zanna and redshirt senior Lamar Patterson played in their final game as Panthers on Saturday afternoon at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., and Zanna was the only player to reach double figures with 10 points. Patterson finished with eight on 3-of-11 shooting, including 1-of-7 from 3-point range. 

Behind its leading scorers, Pitt’s offense also struggled against the Gators’ defense. Pitt shot just 37.3 percent from the field and posted 14 assists to 11 turnovers, an abnormally low assist-to-turnover ratio from a Pitt team. 

Pitt head coach JamieDixon credited Florida’s age as a factor behind the Gators being the best defensive team his Panthers have played all year. 

“Generally your older guys are your best defenders,” Dixon said. “I think their physicality is evident, and like I said, they’re the most physical team we’ve played all year long.”  

In the paint, Zanna and the rest of the Panthers were challenged by the likes of Patric Young, Casey Prather and Dorian Finney-Smith. Young and Finney-Smith tied for the game’s lead with eight rebounds apiece, while Prather pulled down six himself. 

The trio played an integral role in the Gators’ advantage on the glass as they out-rebounded Pitt 38-31. 

And from the perimeter, Wilbekin led all scorers with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting. Of his points, 13 came in the game’s final six minutes as the senior guard scored at will late in the game, twisting through driving lanes and throwing in off-balance shot attempts. 

“I would say that it just happened,” Wilbekin said about his late scoring run. “Our offense isn’t really designed for one player to do something. The ball was in my hands, kind of a late-clock situation, and I was able to get down the lane.”

With the loss, Patterson ends his career as Pitt’s all-time leader with 148 games played, and Zanna finishes with 1,117 career points. 

“Our career…it was long, but now that it’s over, I felt like it wasn’t long enough,” Patterson said. “There’s not much I really can say.”