PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt head coach Jeff Capel has said it a few times, you can tell as much about a team with how they handle success as failure. Coming off a first win at Duke in 45 years, the Panthers (12-7, 3-5) followed it up with a 72-64 win at Georgia Tech.
This time it wasn’t Blake Hinson drilling 7 of 7 threes, rather the senior finished with nine points with four others in double figures led by Bub Carrington with 19 points and six rebounds. Panthers shot 48% from the floor and 42% from three (8-19).
Guillermo Diaz Graham helped the Panthers bounce back after Georgia Tech started the second half with a 7-0 run and turned a four-point Pitt halftime lead in a six-point advantage for the Yellow Jackets seven minutes into the second half. The Panthers sophomore hit a three to cut the lead in half, followed by a three-point play by freshman Jaland Lowe and another three by Guillermo.
“He had a huge impact,” said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel of Diaz Graham. “He’s long defensively so he’s able to affect some things around the basket. He got some deflections. He made two huge threes for us.”
The lead would grow to five after a Diaz Graham dunk and the Panthers wouldn’t trail the rest of the game.
Ishmael Leggett again worked off the bench with 14 points, all in the second half, Lowe with 12. The Panthers committed just one turnover in the final 18:47 of the game. Capel praised forward Zach Austin for his hustle and key plays with four assists, three rebounds, four points and one turnover.
It’s the first two-game winning streak of conference play as the Panthers have gone from the basement of the ACC to having the same number of wins as Clemson, Miami and Virginia Tech and just a win behind Duke, Syracuse and Virginia.
“These two games have been really good for us,” Capel said. “Hopefully we are becoming a good team. To come on the road and get back-to-back road wins has been really, really good for us. We have one more during this stretch, hopefully we can take advantage of that.”
“We feel the energy,” Lowe said. “We feel the momentum. We are connecting on a higher level right now. At the beginning of the season, we had to had to find our way through a little adversity but we are back.”
Up Next
Panthers continue on the road, going further south playing at Miami at 2:15 on Saturday with Panthers pregame with Bill Hillgrove, Curtis Aiken and Cale Berger at 1:45p on 93.7 The Fan.