PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – On the verge of winning a first game against a Power 5 team this season, Minnesota completed a comeback with put-back, tip-in with 2.4 seconds left. Golden Gophers improve to 6-0 beating Pitt 54-53 at the Petersen Events Center Tuesday.
“This one hurt, all of them hurt, but this one really does,” said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. “I’m proud of my guys for continuing to show up. We have not gotten off to the start of the season we had anticipated and certainly that we want. I do really feel that good things will happen to us if we continue to do that.”
Panthers, now 2-5 on the season, held an eight-point lead midway through the second half. They ended the game on a three-minute scoring draught after starting the game not scoring for the first four minutes and thirty-two seconds. Minnesota won despite making just two of it’s final 10 shots, but the last one went in.
Pitt again shot under 40% for the game and just 3-15 from three and 10-15 from the foul line. Minnesota scored 16 points off 12 Pitt turnovers.
“This is a gut punch,” Capel said. “If we can get one defensive rebound the last two possessions, maybe it’s a little bit different. We didn’t, they made plays, salute to them.”
“Hurt for our guys, but proud of the effort.”
All John
Forward John Hugley scored 16 straight Panthers points during a stretch of the game Tuesday. The sophomore finished with 25 points and a career-high 14 rebounds and was the major scoring option all night. In just his 14th career game, Hugley would finish 9 of 16 from the floor and hit a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer to give Pitt at 24-22 lead at the break.
“Just doing the best to help my team win,” Hugley said. “Just trying to produce as much as I can. Just keep attacking it, just keep playing with confidence.”
“It’s crazy, we recruited him at Xavier,” said Minnesota head coach Ben Johnson. “So I’ve watched him forever. I told our guys he’s a very talented player, great hands, really good feel. It’s hard because he’s so big, he’s so wide and strong. Hats off to him.”
It wasn’t just his offense that impressed the Panthers coaches.
“I thought his defense was the best it’s been all year,” Capel said. “I thought his ball screen defense was really good, got on the floor for a loose ball.”
Take Hugley away in the first half and Pitt scored 9 points on 4 of 17 field goals and 1 of 8 from three. Walk-on Onyebuchi Ezeakudo was the second leading scorer with the other made three-pointer.
“We look at John as a freshman because he only got to play seven games last year,” Capel said of his forward’s third double-double of the season. “When you start to have some numbers like he did the first couple of games, teams have tape on him. They start to game plan, do different things. That’s certainly going to happen from these last two games moving forward.”
Others would contribute including 6’10” graduate transfer Mouhamadou Gueye. He would finish with only two points, but 11 rebounds. Sophomore guard Femi Odukale with six points, five assists, five rebounds and a pair of steals. Walk-on guard Onyebuchi Ezeakudo played 20 minutes scoring five points and three assists with no turnovers.
“We are taking lumps, but we are learning,” Capel said. “The things that I keep telling our guys is as long as we keep showing up with the right attitude, the right mindset; fighting for each other, positive things will happen. It may not look like it now, but I’m a firm believer in that.”
ACC Next
From representing the conference in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, the Panthers go into conference play at Virginia Friday night at 8p, pregame at 7:30p on 93.7 The Fan.