BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Whether it was the relatively early 2 p.m. weekday tip time, a lack of sleep from a late Monday night or the tranquil atmosphere inside the sparsely populated Barclays Center, a Pitt fan seated several rows behind the Panthers’ pep band in one of the arena’s end zones was lulled to sleep Tuesday.
With his team trailing Boston College by 11 at halftime, 33-22, it was hard to fault him, particularly since he made the effort to be at a game only maybe 2,000 others were attending.
Though his eyes eventually opened back up, what he awoke to see likely made him wish they were still shut.
Pitt’s 2021-22 season came to an ignominious end Tuesday with a 66-46 loss to Boston College, another lopsided defeat in a final stretch of its schedule defined by them.
Its final three setbacks of a four-game losing streak it brought into the conference tournament came against three of the league’s top four teams, a trio of Miami, Duke and Notre Dame that beat the Panthers by a combined 75 points. On Tuesday, they were blown out by an 11-19 team that was only one of three ACC teams with a worse seed than them in the tournament. After never losing by more than 16 points in their first 18 games, a period in which they were at a significant talent disadvantage several times, Tuesday’s loss marked the sixth time in their final 14 games that they fell by at least 20 points.
Following its latest slipup, Pitt finished the season with an 11-21 record, giving it at least 21 losses in a season for just the third time in program history.
“The guys that played a lot, I think they were tired,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “I think they were mentally and physically fried. Again, it's no excuse, but we just didn't play well the last two-and-a-half weeks of the season.”
After taking a 22-21 following a 3-pointer from Mouhamadou Gueye with 4:51 remaining in the first half, Pitt went scoreless for the rest of the period and missed 14 of its final 16 shots after making seven of its first 10. In that time, a one-point lead turned into an 11-point deficit.
By the time Eagles forward Quentin Post drained a 3 with 14 minutes left in the second half, Boston College’s advantage was up to 21, capping off a run between the halves in which the Panthers were outscored by a 25-4 margin.
“We played aggressive and it kind of gave them a little shock, I guess you could say,” Boston College guard DeMarr Langford said.
Pitt’s struggles began late in the first half, when star forward John Hugley, who had eight points in the game’s first 7:15, was whistled for his second foul with 4:14 left in the half. With Hugley on the court in the first half, his team had 21 points on 21 possessions. Without him, it had just one point across nine trips up the court.
The Panthers’ foul woes weren’t limited to Hugley. Guard Jamarius Burton, the team’s No. 2 scorer, was called for his third foul with 24 seconds left in the first half. Starting point guard Femi Odukale picked up his third and fourth fouls — a flagrant foul and a technical foul — with 18:21 left in the game after an altercation with Post, who Odukale tripped and pulled down before getting up, tripping over Post’s legs and then standing over the Eagles’ big man.
Boston College made three of its ensuing four free throws to extend its lead to 13.
“I think that kind of rattled their spirit,” Post said.
That foul trouble for key players played at least some role in a dreadful offensive performance for Pitt, the latest in a season full of them. The Panthers shot just 40% overall and 27.3% from 3, scoring 46 points on 57 possessions. It’s the sixth time in their final eight games that they failed to average at least one point per possession. They attempted only 12 free throws after shooting 28 and 19 in their first two meetings against Boston College this season.
Hugley wrapped up a strong sophomore season with 15 points and eight rebounds. In his final college game, Gueye had 12 points, six rebounds and three assists. Burton also finished in double figures, scoring 10 points. No other Panthers player scored more than six.
“We knew he was like the motor to their team,” Langford said of Hugley. “Our game plan was just kind of double him in the post and make somebody else make a play.”
The loss ended one of the more taxing seasons for Pitt over the past 40 years. The Panthers came into the year with low expectations — they were picked 14th in the 15-team ACC in the league’s preseason poll — and injuries and suspensions to key contributors depleted what was already not a particularly formidable roster.
Despite the poor record and the grueling final five games, Capel believes there were reasons for encouragement. His team wasn’t good — and Capel acknowledged the Panthers need better players — but it fought, something for which he gives his players credit.
“This was certainly not the outcome that we wanted or anticipated, but I'm proud of my guys,” Capel said. “This has been a really long year. It's been a hard year. We have had a lot of adversity right from the beginning, right after the first exhibition game. It was when it all started. It hasn't looked like it over the last two weeks, but our team got better from the beginning of the year until where we are now. And the thing that I'm grateful for and what I told these guys in the locker room is that we were able to get better because we continued to show up and we continued to work and try to get better.”
