Tough sledding remains ahead for Pitt, with last weekend’s contest at No. 22 Clemson the first of four games against ranked teams in a five-game span.
Following that defeat, Pitt traveled to John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville for a game Tuesday vs. No. 18 Virginia.
Not since Feb. 13, 2024, against No. 21 Virginia, had the Panthers notched a win against a ranked foe. That stretch of futility continued Tuesday after a 67-47 loss
After a brief, bright start to the game, the Panthers quickly fell behind, plagued by turnovers and long stretches without buckets.
Pitt (9-14, 2-8 ACC) looked on the verge of making things interesting a handful of times in the second half, but Virginia (19-3, 8-2) had more than enough offense to keep the Panthers at arm’s length.
“They’re an older, experienced team, and it shows with the way they play,” Panthers assistant coach Kyle Cieplicki said postgame on 93.7 FM.
Ten first-half turnovers contributed significantly to Pitt falling behind early, as a 7-4 lead evaporated behind a 12-0 Virginia run. For the remainder of the first half, the Cavaliers outscored them 30-13.
By game’s end, the 16 turnovers by Pitt were second to only Nov. 3 in the season opener vs. Youngstown State (18).
Pitt’s 47 points were a season low.
Nojus Indrusaitis had 11 points and six rebounds for Pitt, and Cam Corhen also had 11 but had a team-high five turnovers.
Damarco Minor and Roman Siulepa scored eight apiece.
Brandin Cummings did not travel with the team because of an ankle injury.
Virginia was led by a double-double from Thijs De Ridder (10 points, 12 rebounds), Sam Lewis (15 points) and Chance Mallory (11 points).
As a team, Pitt shot 37% (17 of 46) from the floor, including 31.6% (6 of 19) from 3-point range.
The closest Pitt came in the second half was 12 points.
“Obviously, (Virginia is) a top-25 team at home,” Cieplicki said. “I thought we came out ready to play, executed well. … Able to get out to a little advantage to start the game, (but) they ramped us up, they sped us up in the half court and we didn’t handle their gap help and their help at the rim as well as we needed to, which accounted for a lot of the turnovers.”
Pitt went into halftime trailing 33-20.
De Ridder drew first blood for Virginia in the second half, and, after he hit a free throw as a result of a flagrant 1 foul on Barry Dunning Jr., the Cavaliers were up 36-22 less than two minutes in.
Pitt’s hole grew to 17 shortly thereafter, when Malik Thomas scored a tip-in basket, was fouled, and made his free throw to make it 39-22 Virginia.
A fastbreak dunk by Siulepa and a 3-pointer from Minor got Pitt within 13, and the Panthers eyed coming a bit closer when Siulepa drove under the rim following an Omari Witherspoon rebound in the defensive zone.
But Siulepa turned the ball over, the 12th of the day for Pitt, which led to a 3-pointer from Lewis.
With 14:44 to play, Pitt trailed 45-29.
Pitt’s next turnover (No. 13) was among the Panthers’ most frustrating of the night.
After an Indrusaitis 3-pointer that again trimmed the deficit to 13, Virginia missed a shot from long range, and Dunning came down with a rebound in the defensive zone.
But Mallory picked his pocket and flipped the ball to Johann Grunloh for an easy dunk, with Virginia taking a 47-32 lead into the under-12 media timeout.
About three minutes later, a modest 5-0 run by the Panthers got them within 12, but with 8:49 to play, Virginia remained in front 49-37.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, coming out of the under-8 media timeout, Lewis drained a 3-pointer, and, 51 seconds later, he hit another one.
The Cavaliers snatched back momentum to go up 55-37 with 7:32 to play.
A corner 3-pointer by Mallory made it 61-44 with under four minutes to go.
From there, all Pitt managed was three more points, as Virginia cruised to a comfortable win.
“Obviously, (minus Cummings), we had eight guys we played tonight,” Cieplicki said of Pitt’s shortened rotation. “Going to continue to play through those guys, and, hopefully, these experiences they can learn from to build up their confidence.”