Pitt survives scare from Canisius, escapes with 82-71 victory
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Pitt’s struggles Saturday night in an 82-71 victory against Canisius led Blake Hinson to think about something totally unrelated to basketball:
Final exams start next week.
Pitt trailed the Golden Griffins, 54-47, with 13 minutes left in the game before waking up midway through the second half and ironing out the wrinkles in its game on both ends of the court. The result was the Panthers’ seventh victory in 10 games and a welcome sigh of relief for a disaster averted and no game scheduled until next Saturday.
“We had a hard time mustering up some effort this whole game, really,” said Hinson, who scored 26 points, reaching the 22-point mark for the sixth time this season and fourth game in a row.
“Towards the end, we definitely got some effort. It’s kind of like you have that (classroom) assignment due at 12, and it’s 11:45. Then, you’re like, ‘OK, let’s do it.’
“But that doesn’t win games. We have to make sure the clock doesn’t pressure us into playing hard.”
Added coach Jeff Capel: “We didn’t communicate well, and we just didn’t play to the level that’s necessary to be the type of team we want to be. I thought we played tired.”
Another lesson learned, but Capel wasn’t surprised that Canisius (6-5) put a legitimate scare into his team.
“I knew that this would be a tough game,” he said noting the busy schedule this week and the emotion exerted at the West Virginia Coliseum on Wednesday night against a rival. The game was Pitt’s third in seven days.
“We haven’t embarked on anything like this since we’ve been together,” he said. “We need a break. It’s the end of an energy cycle. We really haven’t had a lot of time to practice. This will be great for us to take a couple of days off.”
Capel said the game was difficult for another, basic reason: “They’re a good basketball team, especially offensively. We started out a little bit flat. That was them. It wasn’t us. They made us flat with their movement and their continuity.”
To combat a stubborn opponent that shot 53.1% (26 of 49) for the game, Capel shifted to a little-used zone defense in the second half.
“We went to a zone, maybe played it a couple of possessions all year,” he said. “That kind of negated their movement. We were able to string together some stops.”
After Canisius seized that seven-point lead in the second half, Pitt went on a 28-12 run that built a comfortable, nine-point lead with 2 minutes, 52 seconds left.
It started with consecutive 3-pointers from Bub Carrington, Jorge Diaz Graham and Hinson and ended with an alley-oop dunk by Federiko Federiko on an assist from Ishmael Leggett.
Hinson got 17 of his points on 2-pointers and free throws while attempting only four 3-pointers. He made three after hitting a school-record nine at West Virginia.
Carrington ended up with 16 points, Leggett 13 and both players contributed five assists each.
Capel also inserted a different lineup at the start of the second half, with Guillermo Diaz Graham and defensive ace William Jeffress replacing Zack Austin and Federiko. Austin, who has started every game, played only five minutes, while the Diaz Graham twins, Jeffress and Jaland Lowe received extensive playing time. Lowe and Carrington, two point guards, played together in some crucial moments.
That’s the team effort Capel demands. The Panthers also started to play with more aggressiveness during their recovery.
“We had to play with more force. We had to try to create energy,” he said.
The game was played in front of a crowd of 7,808, many of whom were watching two Pitt teams simultaneously. The Pitt women’s volleyball team was nailing down a third consecutive Final Four berth next door at Fitzgerald Field House.
Perhaps to keep the players focused on basketball, there was no mention of volleyball by the public address announcer until the match ended.
“Hated to miss it,” Capel said.