PITTSBURGH-- Pitt dropped to 0-2 in the Big East after losing to Cincinnati 66-63 at the Pedersen Events Center Sunday night. The Bearcats (11-3, 1-0 Big East) hit 11 three-pointers and converted 17 Panther (11-4, 0-2 Big East) turnovers into 20 points.
“Cincinnati made shots and they hurt us with 15 offensive rebounds,” Dixon said. “We can’t make excuses. That was the message I gave in the locker room after the game.”
Due to the suspension of starting Cincinnati center Yancey Gates, the Bearcats fielded a smaller lineup. Their quickness showed as they seemed to beat the Panthers to every loose ball in winning for the first time at the Pederson Events Center.
Nasir Robinson led Pitt with 19 points and ten rebounds. He thought the Panthers did not play well enough on defense to win.
“We could have done a way better job on the defensive end. We were scoring but couldn’t get enough stops on defense,” Robinson said. “We just have to keep working and not hang our heads.”
Fellow-senior Ashton Gibbs added 18 points and shot 7-15 from the floor as he tries to work himself out of a shooting slump.
“We’re just not taking advantage of our opportunities,” Gibbs said. “We didn’t get a lot of loose balls and committed too many turnovers.”
Gibbs agreed with Robinson that the team needs to keep working to get back on the winning track.
“We’ve just been missing shots [the last three games] and making too many mistakes,” Gibbs said. “We’re struggling but we haven’t lost any confidence. We just have to get right back to it.”
Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin felt going into the game he had to force turnovers and get steals to makeup for his team’s temporary lack of size. He mixed up a two-three zone with a three-two zone that caused problems for Pitt, especially in the second half.
“We had to steal rebounds due to our lack of size,” Cronin said. “I told our team before the game we had to turn over Pitt 17 times or more to win the game and we did that.”
Dixon felt the Panthers would see some zone defense but did not think they would be affected as much as they were in the loss.
“Simply put, we need to be better and we should be better,” Dixon said. “I thought going into this season we would be a low-turnover team but it hasn’t been that way so far.”
Starting point guard Tray Woodall was out as he was re-injured against Notre Dame five days ago. His floor game was missed, especially late in the game when the Panthers made a mad dash to come back but were erratic with the basketball.
Even though the Panthers trailed through most of the second half after going into the locker room at the break tied 31-31, they still had a chance to tie the game in the final minute.
John Johnson hit two out of three free throws with 40 seconds left to pull Pitt to within three points. Then twice, Pitt fouled to stop the clock in the last 30 seconds and the Bearcats missed the front end of the one-and-one, but the Panthers were not able to take advantage of either gift.
“We were able to make stops during that stretch,” Cronin said. “Our guys did a great job down the stretch.”
Pitt now travels to DePaul Thursday night in an attempt to get in the win column for the first time in conference play this season.
For further information: Pitt web site
Comments