The Pitt men’s basketball team is finding it must be much more physical if the Panthers want to be successful.
Pitt (4-2) is off to a good start, but after a 77-67 loss to UCF on Thursday, the Panthers have not played well against the two toughest teams on their schedule thus far. The ACC school’s other loss was to West Virginia, 71-49.
The Panthers will try to get back on track Sunday when they travel to Dayton Beach, Fla. to take on Quinnipiac (3-2) as part of the Legends Classic.
Pitt trailed UCF by two at halftime, but the Knights went on an 11-1 run to start the second half to control the game the rest of the way.
“You’re coming out in the second half. The first four minutes has got to be rock ‘em, sock ‘em robot, smashmouth basketball,” said associate coach Tim O’Toole on the 93.7 FM postgame show. “This is a physical basketball team, they’re in the Big 12 and they’re hitting you on every cut. We have got to fight back. To me, that was missing.”
The Panthers were led by Cameron Corhen, who had his third double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The senior leads the Panthers with 14.5 points per game and 10 rebounds per contest.
Demarco Minor had 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Barry Dunning also had 14 points, six rebounds and two blocks off the bench for the Panthers.
Quinnipiac is coming off a 112-52 win over City College New York on Wednesday.
Samson Reilly led the way for the Metro Atlantic Conference school with a career-high 29 points.
The 6-foot-2 guard hit 9-of-15 3-pointers.
Keith McKnight added 20 points and Christopher Skenderi had 13 off the bench, going 3-for-3 on 3-pointers.
The Bobcats outrebounded CCNY 49-26 and won the turnover battle 15-5.
Coach Tom Pecora, who is in his third year at Quinnipiac and 17th in Division I, has been touting his depth and team height since the pre-season.
“We have more depth than we’ve ever had,” Pecora told Quinnipiac Bobcats Sports Network earlier this month. “We have eight guys that are 6-foot-6 or bigger… That’s the biggest team I have ever coached by far. We had a couple big fellas like this (at Hofstra and UNLV) but nobody like this.”
