Five Pitt players in double figures, a +6 rebounding margin, only 7 turnovers, 75% free throw shooting and tough defense the entire way. That was what countered only shooting 39.3%, letting Douby get 27, Rutgers shooting 40% from 3-point range, foul trouble for Gray, and Krauser shut down.
I’m not entirely sure why Gray was still in the game for the final couple of minutes when Rutgers was going to do nothing but foul. Still he did go 7-12 from the line at that point, before Pitt stopped letting him get the ball. The guards finally handled and Ramon went 4-4 on FTs and Krauser added 1-2 in the final minute to completely ice it.
Rutgers hung tough, but Pitt was in control mid-way through the second half. Rutgers just didn’t have any other reliable scoring option besides Douby. Pitt had many options, and Rutgers couldn’t match.
This is the second straight home game Rutgers has lost to a ranked team because the Knights couldn’t account for a supporting player after doing a solid job on the marquee guys. Villanova was an 84-78 winner at the RAC on Jan. 11 in large part because Kyle Lowry scored a career-high 28 points — quadrupling his average.
Kendall’s production wasn’t nearly as dramatic a jump over his seasonal averages, but it was significant enough. He entered the game averaging 7 points and 5.8 rebounds.
“We have to emphasize everyone now,” said Rutgers junior Quincy Douby, who topped the 20-point mark for the 13th time in 14 games with 27 points.
“It’s something as a team we have to get better at,” fellow junior Marquis Webb said. “We take away a team’s leading player and their second-best player … we can’t let others get off.”
Pitt just kept after it, while Rutgers showed fatigue.
But No. 9 Pittsburgh won again Wednesday night, defeating Rutgers, 76-68, in the hostile environment that is the Louis Brown Athletic Center. The Panthers are one of those teams that always seems to find a way to win.
“That’s something that the coaches have been mentioning to us,” Pittsburgh forward Levon Kendall said. “We have to be tough. We have to be tougher than the other team. We grind it out and play for the full 40 minutes. After a while, the other team wears down.”
Which was exactly what happened Wednesday. Rutgers (12-5, 2-2 Big East) stayed with Pittsburgh (15-0, 4-0) for most of the game but withered in the final 10 minutes. Pittsburgh is one of three teams in the nation that have yet to lose. The others, Duke and Florida, won Wednesday night.
The loss leaves Rutgers still looking for the “big” win this season.
But while Carl Krauser finished with nearly as many turnovers (5) as points (6), the Scarlet Knights had no answer for role players such as Levon Kendall (a career-high 14 points), Keith Benjamin (12) and Sam Young (12).
Pitt’s bench outscored Rutgers’ 26-16 and the Panthers also muscled their way inside to a 28-20 advantage.
“Physicality was a factor,” Waters said. “They out-rebounded us by six; we haven’t been out-rebounded in the Big East so they laid it on us today.”
I think Pitt jumping out early, even though it disappeared quickly and went back and forth, really took the crowd out of it. They seemed very pensive the whole game, as if waiting for their team to lose.
