Pitt basketball beats UNC in physical ACC matchup. Duke is up next for the Tar Heels
They call it “Pitt tough.”
The Panthers talk trash. They play physically. They try to make their opponents uncomfortable with their style of play.
North Carolina knew what was coming. And yet UNC coach Hubert Davis said the Tar Heels did not consistently meet that challenge in their 65-64 loss to the Panthers Wednesday night at the Dean E. Smith Center.
Pitt (16-7, 9-3 ACC) held the Heels (15-7, 7-4) to a season-low scoring output in 11 home games and in the process, handed them their first home loss of the season.
“Since Pitt has joined ACC, they’ve always — whomever the coach was — Pitt has always hung their hat on their toughness and their physicality,” Davis said. “And I told the (team) that in games like this, you’re gonna get towed and there’s nowhere to go and you’re gonna have to competitively fight. And I felt like we did that at times, but at times we didn’t sustain it.”
Pitt has won five of the last six games against the Heels including the last three in Chapel Hill. Only Duke (1999-2002) and Wake Forest (2002-04) have won three straight games in the Smith Center.
UNC forward Pete Nance said the Panthers talk more than any of the ACC teams he’s faced so far.
“I think that’s their game and that’s what they want to do and that’s what they feed off of,” said Nance, who had 13 points. “I personally don’t feed off of that. Some people do, some people don’t, but yeah, they definitely talk a lot.
Carolina rallied from a seven point deficit with seven minutes left and tied the game at 61 with 3:47 left thanks to three-point play by Armando Bacot and Caleb Love’s fourth 3-pointer of the game.
When Federiko Federiko put the Panthers back ahead with a layup at 3:29, it was the last basket they made. The Heels came up with five stops forcing four straight misses — including a Blake Hinson missed jumper with 49 seconds left after Bacot made a pair of free throws for a 64-63 lead.
But with the ball, the lead — and a timeout — Bacot got caught in a double team with no clear pass to make. Instead of calling a timeout, he tried to pivot out of the trap and traveled with 27 seconds left.
“I gotta do a better job of knowing if we have timeouts or not in that situation,” Bacot said. “It was a double team, I probably should have kept my dribble alive. Yeah, that was a huge play.”
So was the ensuing defensive possession.
Charlotte native Jamarius Burton, who torched Carolina in their first meeting in Pittsburgh with a career-high 31 points, wasn’t nearly as effective on Wednesday, but still was the difference maker in the game.
Burton got a pick to shed Leaky Black defending him and tried to drive on R.J. Davis. When the 6-foot-4, fifth-year senior raised up for a shot with 3.4 seconds left, Davis fouled him.
Burton made both free throws to cap off a 19-point performance. Burton, shot just 6-for-18 from the field, had been held in check for most of the game with Black defending him.
But when Black picked up his third and fourth fouls within seconds at the 16:05 mark in the second half, Burton’s scoring immediately picked up.
The 6-foot-4 Burton found scoring a lot easier against a player his size. He proceeded to score eight of the Panthers next 17 points including three straight baskets with Black no longer on him. He helped Pitt forge its biggest lead of the game at 57-50.
UNC held Pitt’s two leading scorers, Burton and Hinson, in check. The pair combined to shoot just 7-for-25 from the field and 1-for-9 from 3-point range. But senior guard Nelly Cummings picked up the scoring slack and posted a team-high 21 points including five 3-pointers.
The Heels were a little too infatuated with shooting 3s in the second half, as 14 of their 30 shot attempts came from behind the arc and they only made one.
Carolina had a final shot for the win and attempted to advance the ball to halfcourt without dribbling. It didn’t work out as planned and only 0.6 seconds remained as they called a timeout.
Love attempted a 3-pointer over Nike Sibande, but didn’t get it off in time and was blocked.
Love scored a season-low seven points in the first meeting at Pitt after he admittedly was, “standing around, waiting for the ball to come to me.” He was determined to come out more aggressive on Wednesday.
Love scored nine of the Heels first 17 points and finished with a game-high 22 points.
“I try to just attack when I could and make the best play,” Love said. “I’m still learning and getting better at that as far as picking my spots and knowing when to pass and shoot but just coming into the game I just you know wanted to do whatever I had to do to get the team a win.”
UNC also didn’t help itself from the free throw line. Only Bacot (9-for-15), Love (2-for-3) and R.J. Davis (2-for-4) made it to the line, but they collectively shot 59 percent despite shooting 74 percent from the line as a team this season.
As much as Black figured out a way to take Burton out of the game early, Pitt did the same to Armando Bacot. Carolina’s senior forward dominated the Panthers bigs in the first meeting shooting 8-for-14 from the field and scoring 22 points.
But Bacot rarely allowed him to catch the ball in the paint without a second defender. He didn’t score his first basket until four minutes remained in the first half. Bacot finished with 15 points on 3 of 10 shooting.
“He got frustrated a little bit,” Hubert Davis said. “I think because of their physicality, he felt like he had gotten fouled and I thought that at times got him emotional. At the end of the day, they just did a really good job. And you’d have to compliment them for that.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2023 at 9:14 PM.