Jim Larranaga cites factors in Pittsburgh's game-ending run

Saturday was chocked full of college basketball action. And in one of the afternoon games, fans retreated to an exciting ACC showdown between the No. 20 ranked Miami Hurricanes on the road to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes would fall after a late-game run by the Panthers. After the game, Miami head coach Jim Larranaga cited what he believes were the key factors in Pittsburgh’s late-game run.

“Yeah, mostly, we turned the ball over. While they were scoring, we needed to score,” said Larranaga. “We’d been scoring, keeping ahead of them back and forth; our defense was about like it’s been. We gave up 69 points in a battle. But we had to keep scoring, and we didn’t do that.”

Miami had control of the game late, leading by as many as 11 points in the second half. Still, for the reasons mentioned above by Larranaga, the Hurricanes let that lead slip out of their hands. Miami’s 11-point lead was matched by an 11-0 run by Pittsburgh to give them the 71-68 victory. Miami now drops to 16-5 on the season and 7-4 in conference play. Up next for Miami will be a home contest against the Virginia Tech Hokies, who currently sit at 13-8 on the season.

Miami blows late lead by giving up 11-0 run to end game vs. Pittsburgh

Miami led for almost all of the second half against Pittsburgh on Saturday, but a late collapse ended up costing Hurricanes the game. The Panthers ended the contest on an 11-0 run over the final 2:28 on their way to a 71-68 victory, as Blake Hinson tipped in the go-ahead basket to give Pitt its first lead of the second half with 33 seconds remaining.

From there, the Panthers got a stop on the next possession, but turned it over on the inbounds pass to give No. 20 Miami one more chance. However, the Hurricanes committed a blunder their own on their inbounds pass, giving it away to Greg Elliot, who was immediately fouled and made both free throws.

The loss drops Miami to 16-5 (7-4 ACC) and into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, sits in third place and is now just 1.5 games behind first-place Clemson.