The Panthers’ shooting has been red hot lately, but cooled off a bit tonight. Still, the team didn’t let that get in the way as the team brought home a nice 72-57 road win against No. 19 Georgetown.
Pitt shot 44% from the field and 35% from three-point range. Not bad, but certainly not as good as the team has been shooting lately. The Panthers also didn’t get much from its bench tonight (a total of eight points, ten rebounds, and five assists).
Still, that was plenty enough to beat the Hoyas. Pitt continued its hot shooting early on and opened up a 17-point halftime lead, which was the school’s record for a Big East road game. The team was never heavily challenged after that even though Georgetown played a bit better in the second half.
Ashton Gibbs had a great game, scoring 22 points and hitting five of his ten three-pointers. Brad Wanamaker, recently named to the Wooden Award Midseason List, chipped in 14. And Gilbert Brown didn’t have a great night shooting (2-9), but found a way to be effective, getting to the free throw line where he hit eight of nine shots.
After a momentary lapse against Marquette last weekend, Pitt's trademark defense returned as the team held Georgetown to 38% shooting from the field. Chris Wright, who killed Pitt to the tune of 27 points last season, led Georgetown with 14.
Even though the Hoyas have been struggling mightily over their past few games, this is an impressive win for Pitt. They held onto a big lead and won on the road against a ranked (well, at least they were ranked) Big East team. Pitt now faces Seton Hall in a home game on Saturday.
For more post-game analysis, check out SB Nation Pitt blog, Cardiac Hill.