After a week that saw so much of the conversation around Pitt basketball center on the impact of one player’s injury, the Panthers went to Columbus on Friday and won with contributions from just about everyone on the roster.
With eight players logging double-digit minutes, four scoring in double figures – including two posting 20-plus points – seven players grabbing at least one rebound and seven players making at least one basket, Pitt’s 91-90 overtime win at Ohio State Friday afternoon truly did take a village.
Of course, the headliner was Jaland Lowe, as the Panthers’ sophomore point guard logged a new career high for the third time this season with 28 points – his fourth 20-point game in Pitt’s first eight contests – and he added four rebounds, four assists and a block.
But was he really the headliner? Or was it Ishmael Leggett, Pitt’s leading scorer on the season who put up 21 and 10 against the Buckeyes and willed the Panthers back into the game? After all, during the 15-0 run that turned an 11-point deficit into a four-point lead in the second half, Leggett recorded eight points, two assists, a steal and a defensive rebound.
Then again, there might not have been a bigger storyline in the game than the emergence of Papa Amadou Kante, who came off the bench with Pitt’s centers in foul trouble (Cam Corhen) and injury trouble (Guillermo Diaz Graham) to give a huge 17 minutes.
Kante scored 12 points on 3-of-4 shooting, made 6-of-9 from the free throw line, grabbed four rebounds all on the offensive end and was a plus-14 – the best number for any Pitt player on Friday. He also scored seven points in that 15-0 run.
Jeff Capel certainly put his money on Kante as the day’s biggest impact player.
“I thought the guy that changed the game was Papa Kante,” Pitt’s head coach said. “His energy became contagious and infectious, and it shot throughout the whole team. And he was terrific on both ends of the basketball.”
And yet, we still haven’t even mentioned the biggest shot of the game:
Zack Austin’s dead-center deep three with time running out to send the Panthers back to Pittsburgh with a road win.
Austin has settled into a new role this season as Pitt’s sixth man, and even with starting guard Damian Dunn was sidelined for six weeks with a thumb injury, Austin remained in reserve role and came off the bench in Columbus on Friday.
But he has flourished as the top reserve, sprinkling in occasional scoring with strong defense and the ever-present threat of shot-blocking (although he doesn’t have a block in the last three games).
On Friday, Austin found his shot from outside, knocking down a trio of three-pointers to score 16 points, the most he has had in a game since he scored 20 in a win at Louisville last January. And when the game was literally on the line with Pitt trailing 90-88, Austin inbounded to Lowe with 6.6 seconds left in overtime, trailed the point guard up the court and stepped into a three from the top of the arc.
“Zack made a big-time shot,” Capel said. “But we were in that position because of everyone that touched the court.”
That even extended to reserves Jorge Diaz Graham and Marlon Barnes, who found themselves in the rotation in the final 35 seconds of overtime. Barnes contributed two quick fouls to send Ohio State to the line – the Buckeyes made 2-of-4 attempts in those situations – before he and Diaz Graham returned to the bench. But with Leggett and Kante already fouled out and Lowe and Cameron Corhen each playing with four fouls, there was value in Barnes’ quick reaches.
At some point in January, Dunn will return to the court for Pitt, and that will make the Panthers that much deeper (not to mention the value he adds at both ends of the floor). But if Pitt can build on the team-wide contributions that led to Friday’s win, then the Panthers will be sitting in pretty good shape once Dunn comes back.
“I’m really, really proud of my team,” Capel said Friday. “Hell of a road win against a really good basketball team. And hopefully this is something we can build off of.”
Pitt (7-1) will play at Mississippi State (6-1) on Wednesday night in the SEC/ACC Challenge before finishing the extended stay away from home with the December ACC opener at Virginia Tech on Saturday.
