Pitt HC Apologizes to Fans After Humiliating Defeat

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers played terribly all across the court, leading to an abysmal defeat to Virginia at the Petersen Events Center.

The Panthers fell behind early to the Cavaliers, who embarked on a 17-0 run. This run extended to 23-givnig the Cavaliers a 24-7 lead with eight minutes remaining in the period and they eventually built a 20-point advantage, 30-10 with 4:46 left in the first half.

Pitt struggled defensively in the defeat, as the Cavaliers shot 56.0% from the field and 45.5% from 3-point range, making 10 of their 22 attempts. That ranks as the second highest field goal percentage and fourth highest 3-point field goal percentage that Pitt has allowed an opponent to score all season, respectively.

Cavaliers sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames dominated Pitt all night, scoring a career-high 27 points, while shooting 11-for-16 from the field and 3-for-6 from deep. He also scored 16 of his points in the first half, shooting 7-for-9 from the field and 2-for-3 from behind the arc.

The Panthers had just one starter scoring in double-digits, as senior guard Ishmael Leggett amassed 17 points. The other four starters scored a combined 22 points, shooting 7-for-22 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3-point range.

This serves as the first Quad 3 defeat for Pitt this season, who had just one loss outside of Quad 1 coming into this matchup, which will hurt their standing in the NET Rankings.

Pitt now will move out of the "Last Four In" for the NCAA Tournament, where bracketologists had them prior to this game, and will now face a great challenge to make it back to the postseason.

Panthers head coach Jeff Capel apologized postgame to the fans, the Oakland Zoo and anyone else who showed up to watch that game and was disappointed in everything his team did.

"Really disappointed in our performance," Capel said. "This is probably as bad of a performance of any team I’ve ever coached. It was embarrassing and I’m sorry to the crowd, students, fans. It’s my responsibility. I have to do a better job to make sure we’re ready to go. Thought we were, obviously, we weren’t.

"We were bad in every aspect of the game of basketball. Turnovers, rebounding, defense, offense, everything and our body language was bad. They saw it, they fed off it, it gave them energy. Our inability to guard the ball in the first half, when they just drove us. It was a really, really bad performance from us."

Pitt has now lost six of their past eight games and have gone from an automatic lock for the NCAA Tournament, to potentially missing it for the second straight season.

They will head back out on the road this weekend, as they face North Carolina on Feb. 8, a rematch of their home victory on Jan. 28.

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