Men’s Basketball: Pitt crushes Clemson behind team effort

The Pitt men’s basketball team was well ahead of Clemson by the time Talib Zanna notched his second block, the less emphatic of his two rejections.

Yet Zanna strode confidently toward the bench and thrust his right fist into the electrified air as the horn sounded for the ensuing media timeout. 

The Panthers — led by 22 points, two blocks and two steals from Zanna — employed a motoring, swarming defense and efficient ball movement offensively to shut down Clemson and topple the Tigers, 76-43, Tuesday night at the Petersen Events Center.

Zanna and the Panthers (17-2, 5-1 ACC) defended relentlessly, smothering Clemson’s offense to the tune of a paltry 32 percent shooting from the field. The Tigers entered having witnessed stingy shooting, but usually it’s a product of their defense’s ability to thwart its opponents, who made just 36.2 percent of field goals in 17 games. 

Perhaps there’s a sting behind the Panthers, one that pushed Zanna’s mitts of rejection into the air and left Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon and the Panthers feeling angry.

“We really motivated ourselves by their success at the defensive end and wanted to prove that we were that good of a defensive team,” Dixon said. “We haven’t been because their numbers are better than ours.”

Dixon said his team didn’t change the defensive approach, either. Put simply, the Panthers were motivated to prove themselves.

They looked motivated on the offensive end too behind a sellout crowd that consisted mostly of students donning white headbands in honor of injured guard Durand Johnson. Johnson is out for the season following a torn ACL. 

Zanna made his first eight field goals, most of which were dunks and layups taken from underneath the hoop after teammates worked the ball around the court to create space.

Sophomore point guard James Robinson said the team’s unselfish chemistry made for a fun game. Pitt had 24 assists on 27 field goals. 

“When someone gives their shot up to make a play for somebody else, it usually comes back around, and they usually end up being on the other end of that,” Robinson said.

Robinson found himself on both ends of that equation, finishing with nine points, eight assists, a steal and no turnovers. Lamar Patterson posted 13 points, Cameron Wright scored 12 and Josh Newkirk had 10, a deep stat sheet that proves the distribution of the wealth.

That success started early, with Pitt jumping to a 24-10 lead after about 11 minutes elapsed in the first half. 

Robinson said that the Panthers “just tried to play [their] style of game, play as hard as [they could], [and] execute the best [they] could” from the start of the game.

“I think we did that tonight,” he said.

The dominant run was highlighted by Zanna’s second steal, a stealth jump into Jaron Blossomgame’s passing lane after the Clemson forward snatched a rebound under Pitt’s hoop. Zanna dished to freshman forward Michael Young behind him, then got the pass right back for an easy two-handed flush. 

Robinson said offensive success following a defensive stand was a recurring theme all night.

“Our offense comes when we make stops on the defensive end,” he said. “We played pretty solid defense tonight, and that led to easier buckets on the offensive end.”

But, as Zanna noted, Pitt’s all-around effort wasn’t inspired completely by proving its worth against a stout Clemson (13-5, 4-2 ACC) defense.

“We were just kind of mad about the loss we had [Saturday] against [No. 2] Syracuse, and we were taking it out there,” Zanna said with a calm demeanor unlike his fired-up, on-floor persona. “It was a really big motivation, and we just try to move on.”

Zanna and the Panthers did take it out on the court. They shot 56.3 percent from the field and prevented Clemson from threatening the lead. 

Before Zanna got a piece of his second block, freshman forward Jamel Artis was glued to Blossomgame, altering his shot enough that Zanna had time to swoop in and deny the attempt completely.

Dixon said that his young players had to learn “to take pride in defense.”  

“Most of these guys never thought about what field-goal percentage defense was until they got here. It was like a new stat to them, newly invented,” he said.

After Pitt’s defensive inferiority complex sparked its intensity Tuesday night, the Panthers left the court with a bit more statistical knowledge.