Pitt takes control late, earns 'gritty win' over North Carolina

From afar, you needed to be a lip reader to know what Pitt coach Jeff Capel was saying to his team when it opened the second half Tuesday night giving up easy baskets to North Carolina.

But it wasn’t difficult to see the anger in his eyes and the purpose in his demeanor when he called a timeout only 94 seconds after halftime.

Whatever he said — his players didn’t need to read lips — the words worked and Pitt (14-6, 5-4 ACC) went on to a 73-65 victory over the Tar Heels (13-9, 6-4) in front of a crowd of 11,277 at Petersen Events Center.

The victory was Pitt’s second in a row after a four-game losing streak.

When Capel called the timeout, Pitt had allowed a two-point halftime deficit to grow into a deeper 49-42 hole. The situation was especially frustrating for good reason. Late in the first half, the Panthers had erased most of the Tar Heels’ 44-34 lead when Jaland Lowe scored eight points in a 70-second span, including two 3-pointers off fast breaks.

A 44-42 deficit to open the second half was more than manageable — if Capel’s players were doing what they were supposed to do. They were not at that moment.

”We weren’t playing with the force necessary on both ends,” Capel said. “We gave up layups, drives, and offensively, I thought we were weak. We wanted to come out and establish ourselves the first four minutes and we didn’t do that.

“But they responded.”

A coach likes nothing more than to see his team do just that, and Capel’s words manifested into an 8-0 run immediately after the timeout. At that point, it was anybody’s game.

Responding is what the Panthers did most of the night, starting with Lowe’s burst at the end of the first half and leading into the final dramatic moments when Pitt outscored North Carolina, 14-2, to end the game.

“When we lost the lead, our guys responded,” Capel said.

The final score was the best part, but the way it happened pleased Pitt’s coach just as much.

“We were able to finish. We were able to get 50-50 balls. We got on the floor,” he said. “We were able to get stops, to get rebounds. Really proud of gritty performance and a gritty win.”

He even allowed himself to wonder what might have happened if his team reacted similarly in recent four- and three-point losses to Louisville and Clemson.

“If we get one (stop or rebound) in each game of Clemson and Louisville, we maybe win and it’s very different,” he said.

Down 63-59, Ishmael Leggett opened the burst with two free throws, followed by two 3-pointers from Zack Austin, who also added his fourth and fifth blocks in the final 1:28 while protecting Pitt’s tiny leads.

”Big play after big play, our guys made,” Capel said. “This guy to my right (Austin) was blocking everything. Then, we were able to finish some plays offensively.”

Austin, perhaps the team’s best athlete, didn’t take credit for the blocks, but he said he knew where they originated. It was just a matter of the clothes on his back.

”There’s something about these black jerseys,” he said. “I just think it’s the jerseys, for real. I just had the same mindset going in. The opportunity presented itself. The basketball gods will reward the defense every time.”

Austin was one of four Pitt players to record double-digit points, led by Lowe’s 18, Leggett’s and Austin’s 15 each and Cam Corhen’s 14. Lowe threw in seven assists and shared team rebounding honors with Leggett (six). Capel used only seven players, with Austin playing 39 minutes, Leggett and Lowe 38 each and Damian Dunn 35.

North Carolina All-American guard R.J. Davis led the Tar Heels with 16 points.

UNC coach Hubert Davis blamed the loss not only on his team’s 14 turnovers, but also their timing. Pitt scored 22 points off turnovers.

“It was almost a pick-six everytime we turned the ball over and they’re scoring. Very difficult to withstand something like that,” said Davis, who now just gets his team ready to play No. 2 Duke on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Capel is encouraged by how his team has reacted to its recent losing streak.

“We’re learning from mistakes,” he said. “It’s a long season. You go through different things. When you have a team, you have to figure things out. This is not last year’s team or two years ago. This team has to figure things out, and we’re starting to figure stuff out.

“This was the second game (a 77-73 victory at Syracuse last Saturday was the first) where we were able to sustain the level of play that’s necessary to beat a good team and to be a good team, to be the team we want to be.

“I thought we were a really good team. We had two weeks when we did not play well. Hopefully, these last two games gets us going back to being the team that we were (at 12-2 on Jan. 4).”