PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Minus their leading scorer and four others including an assistant coach, Pitt would trail by 18 points at Syracuse. The Panthers trailed for 39 minutes and 52 seconds until an offensive tip by Au’Diese Toney helped Pitt to an improbable 63-60 road win.
The script may sound familiar, the Panthers never led at Northwestern until Justin Champagnie took a feed from Xavier Johnson to score with seven seconds left to win that game 71-70.
“We got to the under four timeout and I told our team, what does this remind you of,” said head coach Jeff Capel. “This is Northwestern all over again and we’re going to win.”
Yet this team was able to do so without Champagnie, due to injury and the three others (Nike Sibande, John Hugley & Noah Collier) kept at home due to COVID-19 protocols.
“Obviously, that’s a hell of a win for us,” Capel said. “I’m really proud of our team because we showed a lot of fight. We showed a lot of grit. We showed a lot of toughness and we were resilient.”
Pitt (6-2, 2-1 in ACC) had never in program history come back from 14 down at halftime on the road to win and at one point were down 18 points.
“We know what type of team we are,” said Xavier Johnson. “They slipped up. They stopped playing for a second. They would turn it off and on in the second half and we just kept it on and going. We just kept sticking to our plan. Kept getting stops and came out with a win.”
Capel said that comeback started on the defense end, saying they played good defense the last 32 minutes to hold the Orange 24 under their scoring average.
“I thought one of the things that helped us in the second half especially was the defense and the rebounding,” Capel said as Pitt outrebounded Syracuse by 16, 11 on the offensive end. “That allowed us to get out in transition and we didn’t have to play against a set zone the whole time.”
Xavier Johnson, who finished with 12 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals described their win this way.
“I like to call it road kill because you go on the road and you get a win,” Johnson said. “And that just kills the other team’s vibe.”
Ithiel Horton finished with 14 points, Au’Diese Toney finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Femi Odukale had 10 points and 7 rebounds.
“You gotta find that grit inside you to come out with a win,” Toney said. “That’s what we did today.”