No. 22 Panthers travel to Atlanta

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Playing their first game of the 2013-2014 season as a ranked team, the No. 22-ranked Pitt Panthers have an opportunity to start conference play with four straight wins for the first time since the 2010-2011 season. That year, the Panthers attained both a No. 1 ranking in the polls as well as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. 

Pitt men’s basketball travels to Atlanta, Ga., Tuesday for a 9 p.m. matchup with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at McCamish Pavilion. The Panthers play the Yellow Jackets for the seventh time in program history, 24 years after their last matchup, in which Pitt lost 111-92 on Dec. 28, 1989.

In Georgia, the Panthers look for their first-ever road win against Georgia Tech and to extend their three-game win streak in conference play.

No. 22 Pitt (15-1, 3-0 ACC) is one of three undefeated teams remaining in the conference after defeating North Carolina State, Maryland and Wake Forest by an average of nearly 16 points per game. Georgia Tech (10-6, 1-2 ACC) last beat Notre Dame at home, 74-69, for its first conference win of the season.

The Panthers are led by a pair of redshirt seniors in forward Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna. Patterson averages team highs in points and assists at 17.9 and 4.5 per game, respectively, and he has posted six 20-point games this season.

Patterson averages 22.7 points per game in ACC play, and he was named the ACC Player of the Week after he led the Panthers to wins against Maryland and Wake Forest last week, highlighted by a 27-point performance against the Demon Deacons.

Zanna has notched five double-doubles, with his latest coming in Pitt’s 80-65 victory against Wake Forest when he scored 16 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. He also ranks second on the team in scoring at 12.4 points per game and leads the Panthers on the glass with eight rebounds per game.

Georgia Tech boasts a balanced offensive attack with three players averaging double-digit point totals. Senior guard Trae Golden leads the Yellow Jackets with 13.1 points per game, and he scored 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in his last game against the Fighting Irish.

Sophomore forward Marcus Georges-Hunt pairs with Golden in the backcourt and averages 11.9 points per game.

In the frontcourt, Georgia Tech is led by hulking Daniel Miller’s 10.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-11, 275-pound senior from Loganville, Ga., will test Pitt’s frontcourt as one of the largest post players the Panthers have seen this season.

But the Yellow Jackets, like the Panthers, were bit hard by the injury bug as leading rebounder Robert Carter Jr. tore his meniscus Dec. 29 against Charlotte and will miss the remainder of the season. Carter was nearly averaging a double-double at 10.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game in the 13 contests he played prior to his injury.

Pitt plays the rest of its season without fourth-leading scorer Durand Johnson, who tore his right ACL and meniscus in the Panthers’ last game against Wake Forest. Johnson was scoring 8.8 points per game in 16 games off the bench.