PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Simply put, Tuesday night’s 83-79 win at Providence was vintage Pittsburgh. They don’t win in a pretty fashion, they don’t wow you with certain aspects of the game, but they win.
Tuesday night, the Panthers actually appeared to have a new look of sorts in the first half. They went 8-14 from long range, with Gilbert Brown going 5-6 and the only miss being a tough fade-away at the buzzer. But the second half was at times a grind and at other times a battle to hang on as the Panthers didn’t play all that well and found themselves down 76-72 after Providence finally sustained some momentum and got ahead after making several mini-runs that came up short.
That was when they did what they so often do. They found a way to win, and an unlikely hero to boot.
Travon Woodall has had a rough season and wasn’t having the best day. He came into the game shooting just 38.5 percent from the field and just over 30 percent from three-point range. He drove to the basket and found Gary McGhee for a layup to make it 76-74 with 1:08 left. Then after a turnover, the ball got to Woodall around the top of the key, and he put up a three-pointer that found the bottom of the net to give the Panthers a 77-76 lead they would not relinquish, aided by four more free throws by Woodall.
“I felt it was critical to have Travon in there,” head coach Jamie Dixon said. “He hadn’t played well, I just felt we needed him because he’s another ball handler, and hopefully getting some penetration, and that’s what we got.”
The Panthers actually shot 52.9 percent from the field, going 10-19 from behind the arc. That helped them overcome 23 turnovers and Providence shooting over 44 percent from the field – not a great number, but coming into the game opponents were shooting just over 40 percent against them. They didn’t handle Providence’s press well, which would not have been a shocker a year ago but was noteworthy now because that hasn’t been the strength of the Providence defense this season like last year.
Still, despite all of it, and despite a great effort from Marshon Brooks (28 points, six rebounds), the Panthers prevailed.
“That’s just the kind of team we are,” said McGhee, who had 13 points and nine rebounds. “We didn’t play well all game, we turned the ball over throughout the game, and we found a way. With two minutes left, Coach Dixon called a timeout and said we’re going to pull this out, and we did that.”
The Panthers don’t bowl anyone over with big-time talent, although they are becoming more talented with time. For most of Dixon’s tenure, they have won behind the play of guys who were unheralded coming out of high school and developed in college. Players like McGhee, Brown, Brad Wanamaker and Nasir Robinson all fit that description, as none were as highly-touted as junior guard Ashton Gibbs or Dante Taylor, the latter of whom is the first McDonald’s All-American to play there. But this team has depth and experience, and rebuilding years haven’t happened even when they have had major personnel losses.
It doesn’t hurt that this team is unselfish. Sometimes a noteworthy statistic is that every player from a team who got in the game scored. While all but two players (who combined for eight minutes) did that on Tuesday, McGhee was the only Panther who played significant minutes to not have an assist. The Panthers had 18 assists on 27 made field goals, which is actually below their season ratio. Even on a night that is an aberration – they had 18 assists and 23 turnovers while entering the game with the nation’s second-best assist-to-turnover ratio – the Panthers showed their unselfish side.
That was one more thing that helped them pull this one out.
“I think our strength in our numbers really showed out tonight as the foul trouble really made it difficult for guys to get in a rhythm,” said Dixon.
Difficult, but nothing they couldn’t handle. The Panthers usually seem to find a way to win games.
