Playing a team dominant on its home court and hungry to solidify its NCAA Tournament credentials presented Pitt with a tall task Saturday at Cal.
The Bears, squarely on the March Madness bubble and 16-3 at Haas Pavilion entering tipoff, had a lot to play for.
But Pitt came out swinging and led for the entirety of the game en route to a 72-56 victory, capping a road trip to the West Coast with a win.
“We kept talking about it after the tough loss at Stanford: Let’s try to get a split before we go home,” Panthers associate head coach Milan Brown said on the 93.7 FM postgame show. “We knew it was going to be tough. (Cal), as of earlier today, was a (NCAA) Tournament team and are trying to fight for their position, so we knew it was going to be hard.”
Offensive leaders for the Panthers (11-18, 4-12 ACC) were Cam Corhen and Nojus Indrusaitis (16 points apiece) and Damarco Minor (13).
Barry Dunning Jr. contributed a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Omari Witherspoon scored six points, five boards and six assists.
As a team, Pitt shot 46.4% (26 of 56) from the field, including 7 of 21 (33.3%) from long range. The Panthers went 13 of 16 (81.3%) from the free-throw line and out-rebounded Cal, 34-29.
Dai Dai Ames led the Bears (20-9, 8-8) with 11 points, followed by Lee Dort with 10.
Pitt, which led by two points at halftime vs. Stanford on Wednesday before crumbling in the final four minutes, was up 34-26 over Cal at the break.
The Panthers led 5-0 to begin the game, with Minor hitting an early 3-pointer, and while Cal trimmed its lead to within a basket a handful of times, the Panthers were able to close out the half on a strong note.
For the final 1:47 of the opening half, the Bears managed zero points.
To begin the second half, Minor hit another 3-pointer, giving Pitt an 11-point lead 20 seconds in.
While Pitt maintained some distance, the game reached a critical phase about seven minutes into the second half, as Cal came within 45-42 on a John Camden bucket.
But for a period of 4 minutes, 53 seconds, from the 11:46 to 6:53 marks of the second half, Cal’s offense dried up, as the Panthers used a modest 7-0 run to go up 54-44.
When Ames finally produced a bit of much-needed offense for the Bears, there was 6:29 to play, and Pitt led 54-46.
From there, Pitt kept its foot on the gas. The next four baskets by Pitt were in the paint.
With 4:06 to play, Ames converted a 3-point play to cut Pitt’s lead to seven, but that would be the closest the Bears came for the remainder of the afternoon.
Indrusaitis drilled his fourth and final 3-pointer with 2:25 to go, handing Pitt a 65-51 lead.
The Panthers’ final seven points came via the free-throw line, with the Panthers’ 81.3% conversion rate constituting the fifth-best single-game performance in that department this season.
“It was great to see us play unselfishly and even us continuing to get better as a team,” Brown said. “I know its really late in the season, but you’re just trying to get better and better and better. We still left a few points on the board just off of the turnovers we had a couple times. But the ball was popping. When you have good ball and body moving, good things happen.”