No. 25 Pitt escapes Miami with a 59-55 overtime win

Pitt men’s basketball traveled to Miami Wednesday for a matchup with one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s bottom dwellers, known for having one of the conference’s worst defenses. But after 40 minutes of regulation, the Panthers had scored just 46 points and were tied with the lowly Hurricanes.

In overtime, Lamar Patterson scored 11 of his game-high 25 points to push No. 25 Pitt (19-4, 7-3 ACC) to a 59-55 victory against Miami (11-11, 2-7 ACC). Behind the senior’s performance, while the game hung in the balance, the Panthers ended their two-game losing streak.

The first half was a sloppy one for the Panthers, but they managed to carry a 29-28 lead into halftime. Patterson connected on two 3-pointers in the final 68 seconds of the first half to give his team momentum on its way to the locker room.

Patterson’s connections from distance were his first field goals of the game after he started 0-for-4 from the field. The forward from Lancaster finished 6-of-14 from the field, making four of seven 3-pointers and nine of 12 free-throw attempts.

Pitt struggled to keep hold of the ball in the first half, turning it over seven times. Miami employed a full-court press and a zone defense in the halfcourt that resulted in a number of Pitt errors while the Panthers handled the ball.

And with more than 10 minutes left in the first half, the Hurricanes were in the bonus after Patterson was called for a foul on the perimeter.

But Pitt made up for its miscues in the first half by outrebounding Miami 21-14 and shooting 40 percent from the field.

In the second half, the game got even uglier. The Panthers and Hurricanes combined to score only 35 points in the half, shooting so bad that — after each team shot 40 percent or better in the first half — the teams finished at a combined 34 percent shooting.

Ultimately, the Panthers were able to avoid a bad loss by winning in an area in which they usually lose games — the free-throw line.

Pitt made 19 of 26 attempts (73.1 percent) from the charity stripe, which included three big makes by Patterson in the final minute of overtime to gain final separation from the Hurricanes. Opposite the Panthers, Miami finished 14-of-25 (56 percent) from the free-throw line.

In a game separated by so thin a margin, free throws became Pitt’s edge and Miami’s undoing — especially at the end of regulation, when Manu Lecomte made 1-of-2 after he was fouled on a drive to the basket by point guard James Robinson.

Prior to his miss, Patterson went 1-for-2 from the line about a minute earlier, which allowed Rion Brown to hit a 3-pointer that put Miami up 45-44 with 26 seconds to play. Patterson atoned for his miss with a layup on the next possession.

Brown finished as Miami’s leading scorer with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting. The senior guard did most of his damage from beyond the arc, making four of nine 3-pointers.

Garrius Adams added 10 points as the only other Hurricane in double figures.

For Pitt, guard Cameron Wright finished with 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Wright scored 10 points in the first half but lost his scoring touch in the second.

Center Talib Zanna, who twisted his left ankle in Pitt’s home loss Sunday, started at center and added 10 points.