At halftime, Pitt had shown signs of being able to hang with Louisville. The second half, however, was an entirely different story.
Pitt couldn’t keep up with Louisville’s offense in the second half and fell 73-62. Despite getting starting point guard Tray Woodall back, Pitt still fell far short of achieving their first Big East win of the season.
The key stretch happened about midway through the second half when Louisville went on an 11-2 run. Pitt was simply not able to get back into the game after that.
Pitt’s trio of Lamar Patterson, Ashton Gibbs, and Nasir Robinson led the way with a combined 40 points, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Louisville got 21 from the team’s leading scorer, Kyle Kuric and 19 from freshman Chane Behanan. The play from both was a bit unexpected. Behanan came into the game averaging only about eight points per game and it wasn’t even widely believed that Kuric would play as he’d been injured.
Turnovers, as they have been all season, were a huge problem for Pitt. They committed 18 of them and even with Woodall running the show, the team continued to play sloppy.
Speaking of Woodall, in his second return of the season from injury, he was again a non-factor. In Woodall’s first return several weeks ago against Notre Dame, he ended with zero points on 0-5 shooting. He duplicated that effort tonight and also had three turnovers to go along with only two assists.
Quite simply, Pitt needs to get some production out of Woodall in order to remain competitive this year. There’s not enough offense on the team and if he’s unable to contribute anything, it’s going to continue to be an uphill battle.
For more on Pitt basketball and the game, check out SB Nation’s Pitt blog, Cardiac Hill.