It wasn’t as comfortable as I would have preferred. I think the hope was that Pitt would come out from the opening tip, impose its will on Seton Hall. Not turn the ball over, shred and dismantle the Pirates and hold them to perhaps 30% shooting. Is that about right?
That didn’t quite happen. For the second straight game, Pitt was the big game target on Senior night. Seton Hall came out extremely fired up to play. Specifically Hazell and Mitchell shot very well in the first 10-15 minutes. That allowed Seton Hall to fire up the press and actively attack on defense. Pitt struggled with turnovers for the first half. 14 turnovers in the first half. It also didn’t help that DeJuan banged knees and only played 12 very quiet minutes. Despite all the problems, Pitt held a 5 point lead at the half.
In the second half, Pitt completely took control. Not with switch flipped, but slowly and steadily. Just being the superior team — and taking care of the ball. While Pitt had 9 turnovers in the second half. There were really only 7 that took place in meaningful minutes. And against a team that presses and is that aggressive, I’ll take that. Two of the steals came in the final 45 seconds when Pitt had all bench (Frye, Tiesi, McGhee, Robinson and Gibbs) in the game. All that did was allow Seton Hall to make the final score look closer than reality. They scored 8 points in the final 45 seconds to make it only an 11 point road win.
Looking from the perspective of those in NJ, Pitt was simply a better team.
There was a ton of energy in the building at the opening tip and that rubbed off on the Pirates to start the game, but Pitt took their best bench and stayed upright. Considering how well the Hall played in the first half, it didn’t bode well when Pitt walked into the locker room with a five-point lead. A 25-8 rebounding edge helped that along.
We tend to look at it only in terms of what Pitt did and didn’t do. The fact is Seton Hall was playing very well to start the game, but Pitt did not get overwhelmed or flustered — unlike what happened in Providence. One of the beat writers from the NJ Star-Ledger had running updates during the game. Again, the theme was that Seton Hall was playing some of their best basketball early, but Pitt was just stayed with their game plan and steadily took control.
Seton Hall’s coach, conceded after the game that Pitt was just plain superior.
“It was just Pittsburgh being better than us,” Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez said. “We didn’t have an answer for Sam Young. … We didn’t have an answer for them on the backboards. So many of them can make a play.”
Pitt’s big three – Young, DeJuan Blair and Brooklyn product Levance Fields – had strong second halves as the Panthers pulled away. After intermission, Young scored 17 of his 29 points, Blair had all of his nine and Fields contributed eight of his 10.
Here’s the difference with the Providence game and Seton Hall, with regards to the turnovers. Pitt didn’t stand around looking stunned and off-balance. They got back on defense.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t do much with those opportunities. Pittsburgh turned the ball over 23 times, but the Pirates could only turn those into 19 points, while the Panthers turned Seton Hall’s 15 turnovers into 23 points.
“We’re a team where we usually convert other team’s mistakes,” Pirates guard Paul Gause said. “For some reason, we just weren’t able to do it. It had a little bit to do with them, but it had to do with us too. We have to take that into account and try and fix that.”
And once more, 4 of those points off of turnovers came in the final 45 seconds.
Sam Young had a tremendous game against the Hall.
Young scored 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead No. 1 Pitt past Seton Hall, 89-78, last night at the Prudential Center. The victory came five days after the Panthers lost in an uninspiring effort at Providence, one day after regaining the No. 1 ranking.
“Sam is a great scorer,” junior guard Jermaine Dixon said. “When he rebounds like that he’s going to get a lot of points. He saw we were struggling a little bit there, and he stepped up.”
The scary point came early. Not from Seton Hall playing close in the first half, but DeJuan Blair lying on the court in pain after banging knees.
When DeJuan Blair fell to the ground after banging knees with Seton Hall’s Jeremy Hazell early in the first half Saturday night, a shockwave rippled through the Pittsburgh bench.
“The first thing that comes to mind is, ‘Oh my God,'” Pitt senior guard and Brooklyn native Levance Fields said. “He had two ACL injuries in high school. It’s a scary sight. You hope for the best.”
Part of why Pitt was able to handle Seton Hall was that even without Blair, Pitt outworked Seton Hall for rebounds. Pitt pounded them 44-21 on the glass. The Pirates just could not get second chance shots.
