If there’s one thing Pitt needed badly down the stretch run of its ACC Conference schedule was for its senior leaders to step up in big games. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite happen again today as the Panthers lost to North Carolina 75-71 today in Chapel Hill, NC.
Simply outmanned by better athletes and talent by UNC, Pitt never really had command of the game and trailed almost throughout.
The result was a second consecutive loss and now the Panthers find themselves sitting at 20-6 overall and a mediocre 8-5 in the ACC.
Early on, it looked like the Tar Heels would run Pitt out of the gym and led 18-13 on a Nate Britt jumper. Pitt chipped away and only trailed UNC 35-31 at the half.
By the second half, Pitt would eventually go on a 10-2 run of their own including a 3 pointer by its season scoring leader, Lamar Patterson (16 points on only 5-15 shooting which included 3-9 from behind the arc) to cut the lead to 62-59.
But unfortunately Lamar’s output was not matched by senior center Talib Zanna (5 points on 2 for 11 shooting including only 1 for 4 from the line) and Pitt fell short once again.
Sophmore guard James Robinson also struggled from the floor by scoring only 10 points on 4 for 11 shooting and 0 for 2 from downtown. Robinson had a chance to cut the lead to 1 with under a minute left but missed a wide open lay-up down the lane.
Pitt did get a lift off the bench from freshman forward Jamel Artis, who scored 13 points on 4 for 6 shooting including 5 for 7 from the charity stripe.
But the Tar Heels front court was simply too much. North Carolina was led by forward James Michael McAdoo, who scored 24 points on 11 for 18 shooting, as well as reserve forward Brice Johnson (13 points on 3 for 6 shooting including 7 for 10 from the line).
Pitt also couldn’t contain guard Marcus Paige, who scored 18 points on 5 for 9 shooting including 5 for 6 from behind the arc and a perfect 3 for 3 from the line.
After the loss, many media outlets now consider the Panthers an NCAA bubble team mainly due to the lack of quality wins in the Top 50 RPI. Pitt would really need to finish strong with 5 games remaining on the ACC Conference schedule to earn a ticket to the dance.
Pitt has 8 days to think about it as they face Florida State at home next Sunday (Feb 23rd) at 6pm EST.