Men’s Basketball: Patterson hampered by injury in win against Virginia Tech

With about nine minutes remaining in Pitt’s game Sunday against Virginia Tech, Lamar Patterson, his right hand braced by a spiral of white athletic tape running up to and around the knuckle of his thumb, hoisted the ball above his head with his elbows slightly bent. 

Patterson’s thumb hadn’t been reported as injured, and the tape hadn’t been seen before, but he looked familiar in that moment. He stood as statuesque as a lighthouse, the basketball swiveling back and forth briefly until it illuminated the open part of the court.

“There is something going on with [my thumb],” Patterson said after the game. “I hurt it in the last game, but I am trying to get it straightened out now.” 

But then he broke his form and rifled a pass to Talib Zanna, waiting just under the basket, for an easy kiss off the glass. It was Zanna’s first basket of the afternoon.

On Pitt’s next possession, Patterson was open for a 3-pointer just ahead of the left corner.

Once he collected the pass and bent his legs to prepare for the jump, the Oakland Zoo paused in anticipation, preparing for the eruption of cheers that follows a three. With or without the athletic tape on Patterson’s hand, the crowd witnessed the scene frequently all season. 

Since Patterson had already showcased his ever-broadening skillset with the overhead bullet to Zanna, and since the fifth-year senior forward was making threes on almost 43 percent of his attempts, why shouldn’t they have expected a wide-open swish?

Because this was Patterson’s first shot attempt of the matinee, it wasn’t strange that he missed as he adjusted to the flow of Saturday’s game. It was how he couldn’t connect when left alone as though he were simply shooting a warm-up jumper. The ball hit the back of the rim and bounced off almost as high as it had approached the basket.

The concerned crowd bellowed collectively.

But Patterson was back at it on the Panthers’ next possession, again with no obstructions to his traditionally sound 3-point shooting. Now he was firing from the right elbow, but the result was worse. The ball didn’t even hit the rim, instead, thudding off the lower left corner of the square on the backboard.

This time you could hear Patterson’s concerned, almost exhausted exhale.

Then, Virginia Tech — the worst team in the ACC, with just a single win against Miami in overtime — quickly grabbed the lead, 22-21..

The next shot from Patterson, who earlier in the week led Pitt to an overtime victory at Miami with 25 points, was another airballed 3-pointer. It would be his last attempt of the opening half, in which he finished having missed all three of his shots in 18 minutes.

Although his shooting touch was off, his passing vision never faltered, and he collected five assists, suggesting the taped thumb affected his shooting hand. He was the same multi-skilled player, but something was off.

Of more concern, though, was the fact that the lowly Hokies remained within a point, 27-26, at halftime.

Patterson re-emerged from the break with a clean right hand, which was noticeably swollen.

“I took the wrap off because it was uncomfortable and a little too tight,” he said. “There is nothing to worry about. I knew I was going to play in this game.”

He was playing, but still missing, off the mark on three second-half attempts and pointless through regulation. And yet Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon left him in the action.

“I thought he did a good job with some good things defensively,” Dixon said. “He came up with a couple of steals. His help with defense was good down the stretch. We tried to get him rest, and we tried to get him going, but you’re not going to have your best game every night.”

He even missed two free throws on a flagrant-1 foul in the first overtime, which put him all alone at the line. But Patterson wasn’t connecting from anywhere with an open look — not from 3-point range and not standing solo for foul shots.

If it weren’t for Virginia Tech forcing overtime, Patterson would have finished the game scoreless. However, if it weren’t for the poise of the fifth-year senior forward, the Panthers might have dropped an inexplicable home loss to a struggling squad.

After missing his first two foul shots of overtime, Patterson stepped to the line with 1:28 to play, the score tied at 50-50 and the Petersen Events Center silent. He calmly sank both shots.

The Hokies would also hit a pair of free throws to force double overtime, allowing Patterson to step up yet again on the worst game of his final season thus far.

Patterson stood at the free-throw line with a chance to seal a victory, this time with 22 seconds remaining, Pitt up 59-57 and his hand still throbbing in pain. He missed the first.

Then he straightened his posture, collected himself and sent his empty right hand through the shooting motion. After wiping the sweat from his fingertips on his shorts, Patterson released the ball and sank the shot.

“I just knew what to expect. I already knew how it was going to come off my hand,” he said. “I fought through the little pain that was there, and it fell through for me. I still have the same confidence I normally would in that situation.”

Trotting his way back on defense, he balled his right hand into a fist. Not to try squeezing away pain. Not in frustration of a game in which he would finish with just five points in 44 minutes. But in order to softly pump his fist twice, a tangible sign of that confidence and the relief that Pitt would eke out a 62-57 win. 

“He’s a guy that can be effective, and we wanted to know where [No.] 21 was at all times on the floor,” Hokies head coach James Johnson said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of that all the time … But Patterson’s a winner, and we wanted to try to put him in a position where we kept our eye on him all afternoon.”