Pitt Stuns Ohio State in Buzzer-Beating Fashion For Second-Straight Season
PITTSBURGH — The home-and-home series between Pitt (5-3) and Ohio State (6-1) has delivered two electric finishes, both going in favor of the Panthers.
After Zack Austin nailed a game-winning overtime three in Columbus last season, Damarco Minor one-upped him by hitting a three from the logo to beat the buzzer as the Panthers escaped with a 67-66 win over the previously undefeated Buckeyes.
The Panthers held a lead for a majority of the game until the Buckeyes finally claimed their first lead of the game with 8:41 left in the second half. The two teams stayed closely contested over the final few minutes before the Buckeyes went ahead by two on a tip-in by Amare Bynum with just 3.7 seconds left.
After Bynum his up, the Buckeyes burned a timeout to go over the defensive game plan for the final shot. Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, they did not plan for the Panthers to run the same exact set as they did on last year’s game winner.
Unlike last season, the guard, Minor in this situation, did not flip the ball to the trail man and was forced to shoot it with defenders in his face, but the result was the same, a game-winning three to shock the Buckeyes, 67-66.
The Panthers started the game off hot as they immediately went up 7-0 before ultimately leading 16-4 shortly after the first media stoppage of the half.
After Minor converted an and-one to put the Panthers up by 12, the offense went silent over the next six minutes as the team went a combined 0-for-12 from the field and allowed a 11-0 run in favor of the Buckeyes.
The Panthers finally ended the run on a layup by Barry Dunning Jr. and used it to go on a 9-0 run themselves which helped re-build a double-digit lead with the score 25-15.
The Panthers and the Buckeyes traded buckets over the final five minutes and some change of the first half which allowed Pitt to take a 34-24 lead into halftime.
The Panthers played some of the best defense that they played all season in the first half, as they limited a high-scoring team to just 24 points on 10-of-26 shooting. That all changed in the second half as the Buckeyes stormed out to a 6-0 run which cut the Panthers’ lead to just four.
The Buckeyes inched closer later in the half as they went on a 7-0 run that tied the game at 42-42 before tying it up, the first time that the game was tied since it was 0-0.
The Panthers surrendered the lead to the Buckeyes at the 8:41 mark and it looked like all hope and energy was lost on the Pitt side.
That was until Dunning came to life as he scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and provided some high-energy defensive plays that kept the Panthers within striking distance.
Even after Dunning sparked some energy throughout the building, the Buckeyes seemed unfazed as after a layup by Dunning put the Panthers back up by one, at 49-48, Ohio State went on another short scoring run to regain the lead and control.
As the time ticked down, Omari Witherspoon nailed a pair of free throws that made the tied the game back up at 62 a piece with 1:21 left but veteran guard Bruce Thornton answered with a floater in the lane to put the Buckeyes back up by two.
Again, the Panthers used a pair of free throws to tie things back up but they came from an unlikely source, Cam Corhen. The senior forward struggled from the line throughout the game, going 3-of-8 from the stripe until he sunk his last two.
That set the Buckeyes up with the ball and 35 seconds. The Buckeyes first two attempts to score a go-ahead bucket hit off of the rim until Bynum tipped it in with 3.7 left. The rest is history as the Panthers went the length of the court and hit the game-winning three.
Pitt is back in action on Tuesday night when it welcomes Texas A&M and former Panther forward Federiko Federiko into the Petersen Events Center for the annual ACC-SEC Challenge.
