Takeaways: Pitt Makes Same Mistakes Against Georgia Tech

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers suffered a defeat to Georgia Tech at home, that continues a poor end to a once promising season.

Slow Start Hurts Pitt Once Again

Pitt fell behind early vs. Georgia Tech, 9-4 at the first media timeout and then 20-8 at the 11:17 mark, as they shot 3-for-10 early and allowed the road team easy scoring opportunities.

The Panthers eventually cut it down to as low as three in the first half, but the Yellow Jackets continued geting baskets and held a 35-30 lead at the break.

Pitt has fallen behind at halftime in 13 of their 17 games, and trailed by more than eight points in almost all of them.

These poor starts, including against Georgia Tech, make comebacks difficult and also expend more energy, which makes it harder to get/hold leads late in games.

It's even more damning, as the Yellow Jackets came into this game off a poor road loss, 69-54 to the Boston College Eagles on Feb. 22.

Pitt hasn't fixed this problem with just three games remaining and it's a big reason for their poor record this part of the calendar year, 6-11, which includes two four-game losing streaks.

Rebounding Struggles Continue for Pitt

Consistent, successful rebounding is one area of the game of basketball that Pitt hasn't gotten down this season and it's hurt them in many contests, including this one vs. Georgia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets outrebounded the Panthers 27-17 and had 17 second chance points vs. the Panthers only having two points.

Georgia Tech came into this game allowing an ACC high 36.3 rebounds from their opponents, but outrebounded Pitt by 10 in the victory.

Sophomore forward Baye Ndongo dominated in the paint for Georgia Tech and grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds. He also had five offensive rebounds, all of which resulted in second chance points.

Panthers redshirt senior forward Zack Austin led with six rebounds, junior forward Guillermo Diaz Graham and the team had five rebounds each in second. Junior forward Cam Corhen had just two rebounds.

Of their 11 ACC losses, only two of them did Pitt outrebound the other team, vs. Wake Forest on Feb. 1 and North Carolina on Feb. 8, both on the road. ACC teams have also outrebounded them 10 of the 17 times, with Pitt only outrebounding an ACC team five times this season, with two finishing tied.

Pitt head coach Jeff Capel spoke on the poor rebounding from his team, which led to second chance points for Georgia Tech that resulted in the loss.

"...I though the game was lost for us with our inability to rebound," Capel said. "They had 17 second-chance points and I think we had five possessions, where we defended well for 26-27 seconds and then we don't come up with the rebound..."

Duncan Powell Has Career Game vs. Pitt

Yellow Jackets guard Duncan Powell had the best game of his career in the win over the Panthers.

He scored a career-high 26 points, shot 8-for-15 from the field, made a career-high six 3-pointers on 10 attempts and went 4-for-4 from the foul line.

Powell had only made a previous game-high of three 3-pointers prior to this one, but took advantage of some spacing from Pitt, even making a few while taking a foul.

He had a poor game out prior vs. Boston College, scoring a season-low three points, while shooting 1-for-11 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range.

Pitt has had issues allowing players who normally don't have big games or much impact to have those crucial performances against them.

This includes guard Cole Certa from Notre Dame, who scored 12 points and made three 3-pointers after only making two all season prior in their loss on Feb. 22.

It also includes Virginia sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames averaged just 6.2 points per game and scored in double-digits just once in 11 ACC games before facing the Panthers.

He would score a career-high 27 points, shooting 11-for-16 from the field, 3-for-6 from behind the arc and making both of his free throws. He scored 16 of those points in the first half, shooting 7-for-9 from the field and 2-for-3 from deep, helping the Cavaliers build their early lead.

Pitt has struggled in losses containing these players on defense and it's hurt them massively, as their chances of making an NCAA Tournament get slimmer by the day.

Pitt Fails to Execute in Second Half

The Panthers came back late in the game, using a 12-2 run over two-and-a-half minutes that gave them a 59-58 lead with 5:34 remaining. Sophomore guard Jaland Lowe scored nine of the points on the run and freshman guard Brandin "Beebah" Cummings made the 3-pointer for the lead.

Pitt also held Georgia Tech without a field goal for more than nine minutes in the last 10 in the second half, but still, they couldn't get the win.

The Panthers struggled offensively after taking the lead, as they shot 2-for-12 from the field, which included missed layups and easy shots.

Pitt trailed just 69-67 with one minute remaining and senior guard Ish Leggett had a wide open layup at the rim and missed it. Georgia Tech guard Lance Terry then took the ball, drove down the court, and scored a layup to put his team up four points with 18.5 seconds left.

They had another opportunity after for a quick bucket, but the Panthers missed four shots and lost the game.

While Georgia Tech didn't score many field goals, they did shoot 21-for-23 from the foul line in the second half, with 17 makes coming in the final 10 minutes of the game.

Ndongo shot 8-for-9 from the foul line, sophomore guard Naithan George made eight of his nine attempts and Terry converted six of his seven free throw attempts.

The Yellow Jackets came into the game shooting 66.7% from the free throw line, the worst in the ACC, and finished the game 25-for-28 on free throws, 89.3%, an almost 23% increase.

Pitt still had many opportunities late down the stretch to win this game, but a poor shooting performance overall, including 4-for-18 in the final 12 minutes, doomed them in defeat.

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