2023-12-07 04:24:40
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Pitt used the 3-ball to end its six-game losing streak to West Virginia with tonight’s 80-63 victory over the Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum.
Pitt’s last win in the series came here on Jan. 30, 2012, when Jamie Dixon was still coaching the Panthers. Since the series resumption in 2017, West Virginia has won five times, including last year’s 81-56 blowout win in Pittsburgh.
Tonight, Pitt turned the tables behind forward Blake Hinson’s game-high 29 points, 26 of those coming from behind the arc. The 6-foot-8 senior made 9 of 15 from 3, the most 3s since Buffalo’s C.J. Massinburg connected on nine in Buffalo’s 99-94 victory over West Virginia on Nov. 9, 2018.
Those match the nine 3s Marshall’s Tamar Slay made against the Mountaineers at the Charleston Civic Center on Jan. 18, 2000.
“I was worried about Blake Hinson, and he came out ready to play,” West Virginia coach Josh Eilert said. “He’s a man amongst boys sometimes on that perimeter and he can usually get what he wants, and he did tonight. He got three times as many 3s as our team did.”
Pitt’s 16 triples matched the 16 that Kansas made in a 2020 win as the most ever by an opposing team at the Coliseum.
By comparison, West Virginia was just 3 of 20 from behind the arc and was outscored 25-3 by Pitt’s bench.
As has been the case in most of West Virginia’s games this year, the Mountaineers have been competitive in the first half before running out of gas after intermission. Pitt, leading 36-35 at halftime, took control of the game at the 15-minute mark and got its first double-digit lead with 12 minutes to go.
The Mountaineers had four field goals during a six-minute stretch when Pitt was raining 3s, which led to Pitt taking complete control of the game with a 17-point lead.
The Panthers’ biggest margin was 20 with 3:26 to go.
“It seemed like we had a lot more ball movement in the first half and the offense was so much (crisper),” Eilert said. “In the second half, everything was being forced and that’s not how we’re going to win.”
Guard Carlton Carrington contributed 16 points, Diaz Graham Guillermo added 15 and Ishmael Leggett contributed 10 for the Panthers, now 6-3, to snap its two-game losing skid.
West Virginia got 22 points from Quinn Slazinski and 20 points and nine rebounds from Jesse Edwards. Freshman Ofri Naveh chipped in with 11.
The Mountaineers shot 41.3% from the floor (22 of 53) and made 16 of 18 from the free throw line for 88.9%.
A positive development for WVU was the return of senior forward Akok Akok, who suffered a medical emergency during West Virginia’s charity exhibition game against George Mason on Oct. 27. The medical staff cleared Akok to resume practicing this week and he was given the green light to play tonight.
Akok was put into the game to a standing ovation with 13:46 left in the first half and finished with two rebounds and two blocks in eight minutes of action.
“He gave us a spark a couple of times, especially on the defensive end, but he’s very limited with what we can do with him considering he just got cleared three or four days ago,” Eilert said. “We even had to call timeout to get him out and that’s part of the process of getting him reacclimated.”
Tonight’s loss drops West Virginia’s record to 3-5.
A season-high crowd of 12,301 attended tonight’s game.
West Virginia concludes its four-game homestand on Saturday afternoon when it faces Drexel, which owns a recent victory over Villanova. That game will tip off at 4 p.m.
It will be the final game guard Kerr Kriisa must sit out as part of his nine-game NCAA-imposed suspension. He will be available to play when West Virginia takes on Massachusetts in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Dec. 16.
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