PITTSBURGH (AP) — The shot clock running down, Clemson’s David Skara collected the ball and chucked it toward the basket. The ball smacked off the middle of the backboard and through the net for his team’s fourth 3-pointer of a dizzying opening six minutes against Pittsburgh.
Xavier Johnson led Pitt (12-16, 2-13) with 14 points but the freshman guard also committed eight of his team’s 13 turnovers. Terrell Brown scored 11 points for Pitt but the Panthers never led while dropping their 11th consecutive game. Not even a courtside appearance by three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald — a former Pitt football star now anchoring the middle of the defensive line for the Los Angeles Rams — could shake the Panthers out of a funk that stretches more than six weeks.
Pitt, giving away size at nearly every position, couldn’t get anything going. The Panthers kept trying to dump it inside to Brown — who at 6-foot-10 is the team’s lone post threat — but Brown couldn’t seem to do anything with it. He missed all three of his shots, including a layup before the first-half buzzer that rolled of the rim, symbolic of an opening 20 minutes in which the Panthers made just five baskets against eight turnovers, scored a season-low 16 points and trailed by more than 20.
Pitt: The Panthers have taken steps forward in Capel’s first season, but the grind of the ACC has worn down his young and undersized roster.
Clemson: Will try to beat the Tar Heels at home for the second straight season on Saturday. The Tigers won 82-78 in last year’s meeting at Littlejohn Coliseum.