Pitt avoids upset, pulls away from Georgia Tech for 20th victory
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By a strict mathematical standard, Pitt’s 76-68 victory Tuesday night against Georgia Tech didn’t qualify as a game the Panthers absolutely needed to win.
If Pitt had lost in front of 9,482 at raucous Petersen Events Center, there would have been time to recover. There are three games left in the regular season and then the ACC Tournament next month.
But the wounds would have been real and the ripple effect might have turned into a tidal wave in terms of Pitt building a strong resume for an NCAA Tournament berth.
The aftermath of victory No. 20 … pic.twitter.com/BRd7O4236m
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) February 22, 2023
With the lead swinging back and forth in the second half, Pitt finally found itself defensively. On the other end of the floor, the Panthers hit clutch shots when misses could have been devastating, most notably two difficult 3-pointers by point guard Nelly Cummings, who led all Pitt players with 22 points and seven assists.
Cummings connected from beyond the arc while Pitt was protecting one- and three-point leads in the final eight minutes.
Pitt cleaned up the mess with a perfect 12-for-12 effort from the foul line after halftime (19 of 20 for the game).
“They got a veteran group and they made some veteran shots at key times when the game could have gone in either direction,” Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said. “Tough shots, a couple times (with) a hand in their face.”
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The result is Pitt’s first 20-victory season since the 2015-2016 team won 21 and made the school’s most recent trip to the NCAA Tournament. Pitt remained in third place in the ACC (13-4), a half-game out of first, but one step closer to securing one of the four double byes for the conference tournament.
Jeff Capel secured his first 20-victory season as a coach since he won 30 with Oklahoma in 2008-2009.
“We don’t take winning for granted,” he said. “It’s hard in this league.”
He also took another opportunity to stand up for the maligned ACC, noting, “This league is better than the reputation it has right now.”
Whether that’s reality or not is not the point this late in the season.
“It’s hard this time of month because February is the grind,” Capel continued. “Everyone’s banged up. You can’t really practice much now.
“To be able to get off the mat after losing at Virginia Tech (last Saturday), you hadn’t had that feeling in a while and to do it in this manner is good for us.
“We’re in the moment right now and it’s hard to reflect on those type of things because we know we have a heckuva game coming up on Saturday (Syracuse at the Pete).”
The victory was Pitt’s ninth by a single-digit margin (seventh overall in the past eight games), a testament to the players’ age, maturity and ability to embrace difficult moments.
Pastner noted that the average age of the Panthers’ starting lineup is older than that of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder’s five (22.8-21.6). “Cummings played like a (grizzled) veteran and so did Blake Hinson,” he said.
Capel stayed with his top six players throughout most of the game. Hinson added 19 points, Federiko Federiko 14 and Jamarius Burton 12. Federiko, who came into the game with a 58% success rate at the foul line, made all eight of his attempts. “I was prepared,” he said.
During the game’s most intense moments in the second half, Nike Sibande hit a driving layup – his only two points of the game – but Capel said he contributed defensively. That became most evident when Pitt slapped a three-quarter court press on the Yellow Jackets.
“Huge, huge, huge and it was all defensively,” Capel said of Sibande’s efforts. “With him, we were able to get up and pressure a little bit more and extend our defense a little bit more. I thought he had some great contests on some drives. He bodied guys up.”
Cummings said he understands what 20 victories mean to the big picture, but he is not in awe of the effort. At least, not now.
“It definitely means something, but we’re in a grind right now,” he said. “We’re focused on the next opportunity. Twenty wins is special, but we’re not done.
“We were tested a little bit. That’s what we needed. We didn’t need it to be a blowout win. We had to dig deep and get the win.”