Pitt can't handle Clemson in ACC opener, loses 79-70 decision

In the moments before Pitt’s 79-70 loss to Clemson went final, most people in the announced crowd of 7,713 at Petersen Events Center were in an uproar.

Many were looking for the Panthers to complete what would have been an improbable comeback Sunday afternoon.

When a team is down by 15 points with 13 minutes, 19 seconds to play, perhaps fans don’t expect a win. But Pitt rallied to within two points of the visitors (70-68) less than 10 minutes later, triggering the kind of atmosphere that often leads to victory.

Suddenly, this ACC opener got interesting.

Suddenly, Pitt (5-3) stopped putting the ball in the basket, failing to record a field goal in the final 3:41.

Coach Jeff Capel considered the loss another lesson — a hard one — for his team that won its first four games against mid-major competition but is 1-3 since then. All three losses were to power conference teams: Florida (4-3), Missouri (7-2) and Clemson (7-0).

“They are the best team we’ve played,” Capel said of his fellow ACC member. “We learned we can compete with the best.”

But his players haven’t yet learned how to beat the best.

“Everything that we want to accomplish this year and to become the team that we want to be is on the other side of hard,” he said. “We have to learn how to do things harder. We have to learn how to compete for long stretches harder.

“I thought we were ready to play. I thought we competed, but we played against an outstanding team. It requires more.”

The loss can be partially explained by the inability of Pitt’s bench to provide proper backup. Capel used only three players aside from his starters, and William Jeffress, Jaland Lowe and Guillermo Diaz Graham did not score. They contributed only a collective four rebounds and three assists. Jorge Diaz Graham did not play, but Capel said he is not injured.

Pitt got 57 of its 70 points from Blake Hinson (27), Ishmael Leggett (17) and Bub Carrington, who took 16 shots, missed 11 and totaled 13 points.

Still, Pitt had several chances to steal the victory. The problem was defense and free-throw shooting failed the Panthers at every key moment in the final three minutes.

Clemson’s inside/outside game with guard Joe Girard III, a transfer from Syracuse who is familiar with the Pete, and 6-foot-10 big men P.J. Hall and Chauncey Wiggins was too much for Pitt to handle. Girard scored 25 points — with six 3s in nine attempts — Hall added 22 and Wiggins 12.

Down two with 3:41 play, Hinson fouled Ian Schieffelin, who hit both shots. That wouldn’t have been an insurmountable obstacle if Pitt’s Federiko Federiko hadn’t missed both of his free throws 15 seconds later. Overall, Pitt was 12 of 22 from the line, where the team is shooting only 67.5% for the season.

“We’ll continue to practice free throws,” Capel said. “We have some individuals that have to be better, bottom line. We have to work with them and help them to get better.”

From there, Schieffelin hit a layup and Hall, an ACC Player of the Year candidate, bounced a corner 3 off the rim twice before it settled in the cords for a 77-68 lead with 1:31 left.

Capel called Hall’s shot the “dagger,” but he said he believed his team figured out how to win in the second half. “That’s what put us in position to win,” he said.

But Clemson, shooting 46.7% from the field, remained strong.

“To be able to keep our poise down the stretch is one of our strengths,” Hall said.

Said Capel: “They made us pay. That’s what really, really good teams do, (what) older, veteran teams do, and that’s what Clemson did.”

Capel second-guessed his decision not to call timeout in the final three minutes, a move that might have injected his players with some calm for the hectic finish.

“I could have helped our team understand more in the last 3:41,” he said. “Probably could have used a timeout.

“We were in a pretty good rhythm offensively, so I thought we had a pretty good idea of what we needed to do. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.”