SMU hands Pitt 8th loss in past 10 games

Pitt’s misery surfaced in various ways Tuesday night in Dallas, Texas, resulting in another blowout loss — the second in eight days for the staggering Panthers.

The scars from SMU’s 83-63 victory — the most decisive Pitt defeat since the Duke game Jan. 7 — were as evident as they were last week when Virginia slapped a 73-57 loss on the Panthers at Petersen Events Center.

There were repeated lapses on defense, poor shooting, another slow start and SMU scoring 18 points off 12 Pitt turnovers.

But perhaps the most painful development in front of a crowd of 5,525 at Moody Coliseum was the loss of point guard Jaland Lowe, who took an inadvertent shot to the head from the Mustangs’ Boopie Miller in the second half.

Associate head coach Tim O’Toole said on the 93.7 The Fan postgame show that Lowe initially passed concussion protocol. Lowe returned to the game a little more than two minutes later, but quickly was back on the bench and sat out the final 11 minutes, 40 seconds.

“He said he was kind of not remembering certain things,” O’Toole said.

Coach Jeff Capel said he’ll know more about Lowe’s condition when he’s examined Wednesday after returning to Pittsburgh.

Lowe’s absence, coupled with senior guard Damian Dunn’s fractured elbow suffered Saturday in the North Carolina game, put Pitt in a serious manpower shortage while attempting to rally.

In line with most of its ACC games this season, Pitt fell behind early. The Panthers trailed from start to finish — 43-27 at halftime, 75-52 with 4:31 left in the game. Pitt never got closer to SMU in the second half than a 13-point deficit.

Beyond Lowe’s health, perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Pitt’s fourth consecutive defeat and eighth in the past 10 games was its defense. Yes, SMU is the top scoring team in the ACC (82.7 points per game), but Pitt made it look too easy. The Mustangs (19-5, 10-3) made more than half of their shots overall (29 of 52, 55.8%) and 10 of 20 3-point tries, many of them open looks at the basket.

”I thought a couple times we had some momentum, but we didn’t have the necessary discipline on defense,” Capel said. “We give up a corner 3. Then, we turn it over and they go down and score. All of a sudden, the momentum is gone and it’s back to (a 16-point SMU lead).

“We have to be better in that situation. It’s very frustrating. One of the things we have to do we have to get back to defending. I don’t think we have defended well.”

Said O’Toole: “Defensively, there are certain things we have to get better at, close outs, basic stuff. There were a lot of these little breakdowns you can’t afford to make at this level. It’s something we have to tighten up and tighten up fast.”

Pitt was victimized by a veteran SMU team that has won five games in a row and eight of its past nine in its first season in the ACC.

”We came into the game talking about how we can’t turn the basketball over against this team and we can’t take bad shots,” Capel said. “Because that leads to transition. They are a dynamic transition offensive team.”

Also, Pitt had no answer for SMU’s 7-foot-2, 265-pound freshman Samet Yigitoglu, who scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. The Turkish center took advantage of Pitt big man Cam Corhen’s early foul trouble to dominate play in the paint. Three other SMU players scored in double digits — Kario Oquendo (17) and Miller and Matt Cross (13 each).

Pitt never was in sync on offense, shooting 31.8% (21 of 66) from the field, including 9 of 35 (25.7%) from beyond the 3-point arc. Guillermo Diaz Graham led the Panthers with 15 points and freshman Brandin Cummings added 12 off the bench in 16 minutes. Ishmael Leggett contributed 10 points, but missed 12 of 17 shots and all eight of his 3-point attempts. Lowe recorded nine points and five turnovers in 26 minutes.

The loss was another wasted Quad 1 opportunity. Pitt is 1-8 against the better teams on its schedule — determined by the NCAA NET rankings.

Earning an NCAA Tournament berth seems like a lost cause at this point. Pitt (14-10, 5-8 ACC) has seven games left in the regular season, six against opponents that are in the bottom half of the conference standings. But Pitt is running out of chances to take 20 victories into the ACC Tournament next month.

“This is bad,” O’Toole said. “Disappointing is a nice way of phrasing it. You can’t give up 55% from the field and think you’re going to win.”

Capel acknowledged that his players played hard, but he understood the hard truth.

“It wasn’t enough against a really good team,” he said.