Atlanta, Ga—Carlton Carrington found his shooting touch to score 19 points, one of four Pitt players in double figures, to help the Panthers (12-7, 3-5 ACC) beat Georgia Tech 72-64 in Atlanta on Tuesday night.
Pitt has now won three of its last five games and it finally playing well as a team. Pitt leads the series 9-7 since it joined the ACC, but Georgia Tech leads the all-time series 12-9.
The first half the Panthers looked out of sync; they turned the ball over eight times. But the Panthers shot the ball pretty well, hitting 44% of its field goals and 44% from downtown. Blake Hinson continued his hot shooting draining a logo three pointer which extended his consecutive threes streak to eight in a row. Pitt guard Bub Carrington had a fast start in the half, scoring 11 first-half points on 3-for-4 shooting and grabbing four boards to lead the Panthers into the break with a four-point lead (31-27).
Georgia Tech opened the second half with a 7-0 run and took the lead for the first time since 12:29 of the first half. But Pitt later went on a 13-2 run, with a slam by Diaz Graham putting the Panthers ahead 50-45 at 9:12.
Before fouling out, Diaz Graham drained a 3-pointer with 11:15 left to end a 43-all tie and the Panthers led for the remainder of the way. Pitt took their largest lead of the game by at 55-48 with 6:22 remaining on Leggett’s jump shot. Later in the game, he hit a deep three to extend Pitt’s lead to 67-58 before George followed with a three a few seconds later to trim the Yellow Jackets’ deficit to six points. But the Panthers sealed it by shooting 5 of 6 from the foul line, including Leggett’s 3-for-4 effort from the charity stripe.
Georgia Tech (9-10, 2-6) was led by Baye Ndongo, who finished with 17 points and eight rebounds. Kowacie Reeves chipped in 15 points and five rebounds, Kyle Sturdivant scored 14 points and Naithan George had 10 points. Miles Kelly, the team’s leading scorer, picked up two early fouls and failed to score in 17 minutes.
The Panthers got 26 points off the bench and won the rebounding battle (33-31) in a matchup of two of the top rebounding teams in the ACC.
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