Pitt aims to start new streak, hosts Sacred Heart

Pitt looks to rebound from a narrow loss when it hosts Sacred Heart on Saturday afternoon in the opener of a two-game homestand.

The Panthers (6-4) saw their five-game winning streak come to a halt following a 75-74 setback at Vanderbilt on Wednesday.

Greg Elliott, a graduate transfer from Marquette, tied a career high with six 3-pointers en route to scoring a season-high 20 points. Nelly Cummings made three shots from beyond the arc for Pitt, which went 12-for-25 from 3-point range.

The Panthers, however, were undone at the free-throw line. They made only 14 of 21 attempts, while the Commodores made a pair of shots from the line with 1.1 seconds remaining to thwart the late rally by Pitt.

“We can learn that the fight we had in the last four minutes, we have to maintain for 40 minutes,” Cummings said, per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “That’s who we are. We just have to be who we are for 40 minutes. We tend to get away from who we are.

“We’re not going to slump our heads or our shoulders. We’re going to get back to work and keep pushing.”

Blake Hinson averages a team-best 16.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game for Pitt. Jamarius Burton (15.1, 5.2) and Elliott (10.3, 4.4) rank second and third, respectively, in both categories.

Sacred Heart (5-5) will look to snap a two-game skid on Saturday when it plays the second of four straight road games.

Bryce Johnson paced the Pioneers by scoring 13 points in a 70-59 setback to UMass Lowell last Saturday and also in a 61-59 defeat at Fairfield on Wednesday. The game against Fairfield was the first time the Pioneers and Stags played at a campus arena instead of at a neutral Connecticut site.

“It makes no sense to not have it on campus. I’ve been arguing that since I was an assistant coach,” said Sacred Heart coach Anthony Latina after the game. “You saw how great it was today. Whoever thought that it was the way it should go, I thought it was wrong.”

Nico Galette averages a team-best 16.4 points per game for Sacred Heart. He also contributes 7.3 rebounds, an average that is second to only Johnson (7.9) on the team.

–Field Level Media