Knight, Zavackas led Pitt past Providence
NEW YORK-Senior leadership proved to be the difference in Pittsburgh’s Big East Basketball Tournament opener as Brandin Knight and Donatas Zavackas led the Panthers to a 67-59 victory over the Providence Friars in front of 19,528 at Madison Square Garden. “This was a great win for us over a good team that has won six of their last seven games,” Pittsburgh head coach Ben Howland said. “Brandin (Knight) always steps up in Madison Square Garden and Donatas (Zavackas) played like a senior by keeping us in the game in the second half.”
The Panthers entered the game as the second-seeded team in the West Division and earning a bye in the first round of the tournament. The Friars advanced as the third-seeded team in the East Division and defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers on Wednesday, 73-50 to advance.
Zavackas scored all 16 of his points in the second half to lead the Panthers in scoring and stave off a late Providence surge.
“I knew I had to wait for the game to come to me because we have been in these situations before,” Zavackas said. “In the second half, they (Providence) started to guard Brandin and Julius (Page) a lot more, which left me open.”
Knight added 15 points, but also penetrated a tough Friar zone more effectively in the second half to open up some shooting lanes for his teammates.
“I thought Providence hurt us with their 2-3 zone, especially in the first half,” Howland said. “I thought we settled down more in the second half and attacked them (Providence) much better.”
Both teams came to play as the tournament tends to bring the best out of its participants.
Pitt took a 31-30 lead into the locker room at half as the Friars stayed close and actually took a five-point lead twice in the first half.
The tight battle continued for most of the second half as well, as game was tied four times. The Panthers and Friars traded 6-0 runs half-way through the second half which resulted in a 49-49 tie, but Pittsburgh then went on an 11-4 run to take a seven-point lead and pull away with two minutes left and never looked back.
Providence coach Tim Welsh also credited Knight and Zavackas as being responsible for the Panther’s second-half surge.
“I thought Knight drove down the teeth of our zone in the second half and really hurt us,” Welsh said. “Then Zavackas did a good job in finding the open spot, taking the kick-out from Knight, and hitting his shots.”
On defense, Pittsburgh held the Friars’ biggest threat, forward Ryan Gomes, in check by limiting him to 16 points before he fouled out in the last minute of the game. Donnie McGrath led the Friars in scoring with 17.
“I thought Pitt’s defense made it tough for me to shoot because they double-covered me so much,” Gomes said. “We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game and we just tried to match their (Pittsburgh) toughness and battle them as much as we could.”
The Friars did win the battle of the boards, however, by out-rebounding the Panthers, by 11 boards, which is out of character for Pittsburgh.
“That’s not a good sign for us to be out-rebounded by such a large margin, especially giving up so many offensive rebounds,” Howland said.
Pittsburgh was forced to play short-handed up front as power forward Chevon Troutman is nursing a sprained ankle and was not able to play and starting center Ontario Lett was in foul trouble for most of the game and only played 20 minutes.
“Chevy (Troutman) tried to warm up, but after about three minutes, he came back to the bench and told our trainer he was not able to go,” Howland said. “I thought Toree (Morris) and Mark (McCarroll) picked up the slack.”
Pittsburgh will now face Boston College, the number one seed in the Eastern Division at 7 p.m. today. The Eagles advanced after narrowly defeating the St. John’s Red Storm Thursday in overtime, 82-75. Troutman’s status is still questionable for tomorrow’s game.
“We are hoping Troutman is able to play tomorrow because we will need him against a team as good as Boston College,” Howland said. “They have the player of the year in the Big East with Troy Bell and would have had the freshman of the year in Craig Smith had Syracuse not had Carmello Anthony so we are looking forward to tomorrow’s game.”