Pitt vs Wake Forest: Record Shooting Lifts Panthers to Key Win

PITTSBURGH -- As they've become prone to doing over the past few weeks, the Pitt Panthers made winning much more difficult on themselves than it need be. They led by 13 at halftime and 11 with 16:28 to play, but allowed Wake Forest to slowly chip away and come within one possession of tying or winning the game.

But Tyree Appleby's final look at the basket fell wide and the Panthers escaped with their seventh ACC win of the season - the most head coach Jeff Capel has every amassed in his time at Pitt - nonetheless. Still, the road to get there was rocky. 

Live by the 3

The Panthers both shot 37 3-pointers and made a program-high 18 of them. Blake Hinson set another program record in individual makes from deep with eight. Pitt mounted an overwhelming aerial attack against the Demon Deacons, one that carried them all the way to a much-needed victory. 

Blake Hinson and Greg Elliot carried the load, taking all of their 23 attempts from deep and making a combined 14 of them. And while those two made the most, Pitt was extremely unselfish in their pursuit of that record, assisting on all 18 of those triples. 

"It starts with the ball," Elliot said.  The ball is what finds the energy to find those good shots so I feel like once the ball was moving the way it was moving tonight - once we find that good shot - no matter who takes it or what it is, tonight it just happened to be three’s - and it was definitely contagious.”

Struggling Starters Bounce Back

Nelly Cummings and Hinson had not been playing their best basketball over the past couple of games. They had both been mired in slumps - Hinson with his shooting and Cummings with his passing - and for two players that are so key to everything the Panthers want to do offensively, that is a problem. But those two broke out of their offensive woes in big ways against Wake Forest. 

Hinson entered this game averaging just 12.4 points per game on 25% shooting from two-point range and 36% from behind the arc. His exploits to overcome that slump have been well-documented. Each of his 14 attempts from the field came from beyond the arc and he drained 57% of them for 24 points. It is a crucial turnaround for the ever-confident Hinson, who doesn't provide much else if he isn't knocking down shots. 

Cummings had been averaging just 2.4 assists to 1.4 turnovers entering the Wake Forest game and that's the only number that's important in evaluating his play. When Cummings is facilitating and taking care of the ball, the team succeeds. When he doesn't, it suffers. Against the Deacons, he committed just two turnovers and dealt out six assists. The 11 points he added were nice, but his ability to feed the fantastic shooting of his teammates was nicer. 

Wake’s Creative Zone Stiffles Panthers

The Panthers traversed the time between the 7:51 and 4:25 marks of the second half without scoring. They went on a more than three-minute scoring drought, missing all three of their field goal attempts and committing a pair of turnovers. This stretch coincided with a particularly effective use of the 1-3-1 zone. 

The different looks threw Pitt's offense out of their rhythm, head coach Jeff Capel said, allowed the Demon Deacons to crawl back into the game and even take a lead. For a while, it seemed like the Panthers would be sunk by their inability to adjust, but it turned out adjustments just weren't necessary. Instead, the Pitt's zone busters - the red-hot Elliot and Hinson - banged a couple of triples to kickstart an 8-0 run and put their team back up seven. 

Burton Changes With the Game

Jamarius Burton is the Panthers' leading scorer. At times he has been their most reliable source of offense and carried them to victory when things felt bleak. But Burton's most valuable contributions come from his malleability - a knack for finding what the team needs to win the game and doing it. 

Against Wake Forest, Burton didn't need to score, but be a facilitator for his teammates instead and he dealt out nine assists to fuel the record-setting 3-point barrage. Deacons head coach Steve Forbes said he tried to change coverages on Burton but they were really not effective. They kept him from scoring, but Burton is old enough and smart enough to make the most of what a defense is giving him.  

"We were kind of face guarding him at first and then, eh - that didn't go so good," Forbes said. "We were trying to deny his catches. He's a good player and so we thought he made a lot of their things go. But he did a good job - he didn't force things, he didn't get frustrated. ... To his credit, he didn't get frustrated because he is the leading scorer but he just tried to win the game."

Bench Comes Up Big Again

Florida State's bench outscored that of the Panthers by 13 when they visited the Pete last weekend. Pitt had to rely almost wholly on their starters for scoring and it proved to not be enough. But Pitt's reserves redeemed themselves against Wake Forest - Nike Sibande, Nate Santos and Jorge and Guillermo Diaz-Graham accounted for 20 points on 6-15 shooting and nine rebounds while making all but one of their eight free throws. 

“We need those guys and we need their energy and that necessarily may not mean scoring," Capel said. "I thought they did some good things defensively. Obviously, they all scored. ... We need everyone to come in and give great energy when they are in the game. And those guys from the bench did that.”

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