Pitt's Jaland Lowe Learning from Miami Loss
PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers pulled off a stunning rally on the back end of the second half against Miami last weekend, storming back from down 19 points to make it a one-possession game inside of a minute remaining in regulation.
Freshman Jaland Lowe controlled the final, fateful possession for Pitt and didn't manage to get a shot off. After forcing Miami to switch center Norchad Omier onto him, Lowe pulled up for a shot from 3-point range and drew some contact, but didn't get the foul call or a shot attempt. Head coach Jeff Capel liked the play the Panthers ran but still believes there is a lesson for Lowe to draw from it.
"Looking back at it, I thought there was a lot of contact on the play, so I thought we did a good job of that, getting contact," Capel said. "But I thought he also had an opportunity to drive. So we’ll discuss that with him today. Obviously, he was heartbroken after the game, as were we.”
Lowe finished second on the team with 17 points after a slow first half and added seven rebounds and four assists to just one turnover in the loss to the Hurricanes.
The Panthers eventually lost 72-68 after some last-second free throws from the Hurricanes and left an opportunity to steal a third straight ACC win on the road. While the final possession headlined postgame comments from Capel, he took time during the weekly ACC Coaches Call that it wouldn't have been an issue if Pitt had simply not fallen behind by 19 points in the second half.
"But we have to do a better job of not getting down 19 points and then having to — we made a heck of a comeback, put ourselves in a position where we had an opportunity to send the game to overtime or perhaps win it, but we can’t dig holes like that," Capel said. "He was a big reason why we were able to get back into the game, but we were the reason, as a group collectively and myself included, why we didn’t win the game.”
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