Courtesy of GoGriffs.com
Pitt used an 8-0 run over the span of 1:17 late in the second half to pull away from Canisius en route to an 82-71 victory Saturday night in non-conference men’s basketball action in the Peterson Events Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. The win moved the Panthers to 7-3 on the season, while the Golden Griffins fell to 6-5 with the loss.
Three Canisius players scored in double-figures in the losing effort, led by senior Siem Uijtendaal, who recorded a team-high 18 points to go along with six rebounds and a team best five assists. Junior Tre Dinkins added 15 points, three assists and a steal, while fellow junior Frank Mitchell chipped in 12 points to go along with a game-high nine rebounds. As a team, Canisius shot 53.1 percent from the field, made 9-of-24 tries from 3-point land and connected on all 10 free-throws in the loss.
For Pitt, forward Blake Hinson scored a game-high 26 points, while Carlton Carrington added 16 points, five assists and four rebounds. Guard Ishmael Leggett added 15 points, five boards and five assists to the winning cause for the Panthers, who shot 53.4 percent from the floor in the win, with 12 of the team’s 31 field goals coming from 3-point range.
Canisius led 41-40 at halftime after the Griffs made seven 3-point field goals in the game’s opening 20 minutes of play. Out of the intermission, Canisius took a six-point lead with 15:51 left to play on the power of six-straight points over the span of 2:25. In that run, the Griffs got baskets from Mitchell, sophomore Youri Fritz and Uijtendaal to make the score 49-43 in favor of the visiting team. Moments later, Hinson made a pair of free-throws to cut the Griffs’ cushion to 51-47, but a traditional 3-point play by Uijtendaal with 13:16 showing on the clock gave the Blue and Gold their largest lead of the night at 54-47.
“I thought this was a really good college basketball game,” said Canisius University head coach Reggie Witherspoon. “It was hard-fought and both teams played at a high pace. Pitt is a really good team. They’re so big and so long, they really presented us with some problems, especially when they went to the zone on defense there in the second half.”
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Pitt and a jumper by Hinson with 10:34 left to play put the Panthers back up two at 56-54, but Canisius tied the game on its next trip down the floor when senior Bryce Okpoh knocked down a 12-foot jumper on the baseline. After getting a defensive stop, Canisius retook the lead at 59-56 with 9:29 remaining after junior TJ Gadsden drained three free-throws. Pitt scored four-straight points to regain the lead at 60-59, but the Griffs answered once again on their next possession, as Mitchell scored in the paint to put Canisius up 61-60 with 8:11 left to play.
“The difference tonight was turnovers,” Witherspoon said. “We had 15, they only had eight. They turned our 15 turnovers into 16 points. In games like this, the margin for error is so slim. When we turned it over, it obviously hurt us on offense, but it hurt us defensively too, because they were able to get out and move the ball and find an open man. In the first half, we were better at taking care of the ball. We didn’t have any loud turnovers that ended up as run-outs and then baskets. We were a bit more in control and we had the ability to control the pace of the game a bit better.”
On their next possession, the Panthers started their decisive 8-0 run when Leggett knocked down one of his three 3-point baskets on the night to make the score 63-61 in favor of the home team. Moments later, Leggett capped the Panthers’ 8-0 spurt with another 3-point make, this time a bank-shot high off the glass with 6:37 remaining, which made the score 68-61. In the game’s final 6:25, the Griffs got within four points on two different occasions, but Hinson ended the Griffs’ hope for a road win by scoring five points over the contest’s next 1:28 to seal the win for the Panthers.
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