Pitt's 18-point comeback to beat Syracuse 63-60 on Wednesday was the perfect example of the toughness Jeff Capel has worked to instill in his Panthers.
Despite missing four scholarship players, including Justin Champagnie as he recovers from a knee injury, along with Nike Sibande, John Hugley and Noah Collier due to COVID-19 complications, Pitt won its third straight road game of the season and gave Syracuse just its second loss of the season.
And Syracuse didn't just lay down for Pitt go win this game. The Orangemen stormed out to an 11-point lead before Pitt scored a single point in the first half and wouldn't surrender the lead until eight seconds were left in the game.
They also shot 12 of 38 on 3-pointers, scoring 36 of their 60 points on deep shots that kept the Panthers at bay. In addition to their offense, the Orangemen's zone defense stifled Pitt in the first half, allowing only 18 points and a 21.4 field goal percentage.
They built an 18-point lead with 6:36 to go in the first half, and with 10:49 in the second half maintained a 14-point lead. Pitt's overcoming of the 14-point deficit in the second half was the most ever during a road game in the program's history.
Capel had discussed in both of Pitt's losses to Saint Francis and Louisville multiple times this season, noting how Pitt needed to learn not to 'panic' when a team was building a large lead and the Panthers' shots weren't falling. He saw growth in that respect from his team Wednesday.
"We've gotten better, matured and learned," Capel said. "I thought we got good shots early but missed, and then they hit three-straight 3-pointers and we were down 11-0. A couple of the 3-pointers they hit were mistakes with our defense, but we kept fighting. We came out strong in the second half but they still responded with a run, and we didn't panic then either. It's about maturity, growing and learning and we've taken some steps there."
Syracuse's 2-3 zone was proving difficult for the Panthers to break in the first half as they continued to pass the ball around the perimeter and taking outside shots that didn't fall.
But in the second half, Pitt found answers in ways that show they can fight back even when things aren't going their way. Here's the possession that showed more life from Pitt's offense outside of just shooting. Au'Diese Toney gets the ball on the wing and instead of taking the open shot, drives to the top of the paint, attracting the attention of Syracuse's forwards. That gave Abdoul Karim Coulibaly more than enough space to receive Toney's assist and convert for a solid bucket:
Movement with the ball, and movement without the ball both became more fluid for Pitt in the second half.
What was even more inspiring for Pitt was the fact that this comeback was done without Champagnie contributing on the court as he was injured. But don't think Champagnie wasn't trying to help his teammates off the court.
"He was really good with the guys leading up to the game," Capel said. "At halftime after I spoke to the guys, he grabbed a couple of them, went to the board and talked to them about beating the zone. That's big when you have one of your better players doing that."
Champagnie had been the best asset for Pitt against zone defenses with his ability to shoot, cut and rebound as a triple threat. Pitt got that help from across the team to find those answers.
Ithiel Horton led Pitt with 14 points, hitting 4 of 11 3-pointers. Toney scored 12 while leading the team with 14 rebounds while Xavier Johnson also scored 12 with seven assists. Johnson also broke 1,000 career points for the Panthers, becoming the 47th player in program history to do so, and only the 15th to do it in under 80 games.
All seven of those assists came in the second half, as Johnson sat for most of the first half because of two defensive fouls. Pitt only had one assist in the first half before Johnson got the offense going in the second.
Watch how Johnson quickly recognizes how spread out Syracuse's defense is and feeds it down to Terrell Brown to work in the post:
Brown finished strong and got Pitt's deficit to five.
The very next possession, Johnson sees Brown isolated again underneath and gets him the ball for an alley-oop:
By that time, Pitt had broken Syracuse's zone.
"We just attacked and stayed in attack mode," Johnson said about how Pitt worked against the zone defense. "Our team was making a lot of shots with Au'Diese making some 3-pointers and putting back shots. Femi (Odukale) contributed really well, especially at mid-range. Everybody was all into it and I'm just proud of the outcome."
Even Brown, whose 21 minutes were the most all season due to Hugley being unavailable, found himself delivering for Pitt in big ways. He finished with eight points and four rebounds off the bench.
"That was big," Johnson said of Browns' performance. "I always know (Terrell) starts feeling it against Syracuse. He always plays them really well so I kept feeding him."
That's when you could tell Pitt was dictating how the game would finish. Syracuse's defense couldn't deter Toney and Johnson from driving and finding open teammates for shots or points under the basket, and Pitt got the game close.
Toney's biggest moment of the game was a rebound and tip-in off a missed 3-pointer from Horton with just 8.2 seconds left. Rebounding without Champagnie had been a struggle, but look at how Toney and Brown both box out their men under the basket to create the opportunity and take the lead:
That's staying focused on the little things to deliver big moments.
"Coach kept preaching rebounding and crashing the boards," Toney said when describing the play. "That was just one of those plays where my teammate took a shot and I was hoping it went in, but you never know. So I went in for the offensive rebound, it came off, and I was in the right position to tip it in."
The answers to Pitt's questions came from several players in the face of adversity. Despite missing four scholarship players and despite not playing a game since Dec. 22 after two games were postponed, Pitt fought through its struggles and found answers.
"When we were down almost 20 we started hitting shots and then we kept cutting it down," Toney said about the comeback. "Then we got it down to five and coach Capel said, 'it's just like the Northwestern game.' The only thing that was different was that we had less guys to sub in because of COVID. But you have to find that grit inside of you to come out with the win and that's what we did today."
If this is the kind of grit that Capel's putting into his players in just year three, look out for how these Panthers could keep growing as they learn from gutsy wins like this one.