Ishmael Leggett had 21 points, including 15 in the first half, Cameron Corhen added 17 and Pitt snapped a four-game losing streak with a 74-65 Atlantic Coast Conference win over Miami on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Leggett also logged 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals for the Panthers, who were playing without two of their top scorers in Jaland Lowe (concussion) and Damian Dunn (fractured elbow).
Amsal Delalic chipped in with a career-high 14 points for the Panthers (15-10, 6-8 ACC), who took advantage of the offensive glass with 17 second-chance points on 14 offensive rebounds.
Lynn Kidd paced Miami (6-19, 2-12) with 16 points and 15 rebounds. A.J. Staton-McCray finished with 13. Matthew Cleveland, meanwhile, totaled just eight points on 4-of-16 shooting. The Hurricanes’ leading scorer, Cleveland had averaged nearly 26.4 points on 57.5 percent shooting over the previous seven games.
After a slow start for both teams, Miami strung together three straight 3-pointers to grab a 14-7 lead. Another 7-0 burst soon after put the Hurricanes on top 21-13.
Pitt, however, answered with seven straight points to trim the gap to one. As the half came to a close, Delalic buried a buzzer-beating triple to give the Panthers a 32-30 advantage at the break.
Pitt used a 10-2 spurt midway through the second half to extend its lead to 10 as Miami went without a field goal for over five minutes. With 6:52 to go, Corhen followed up a missed lay-up with a basket to give the Panthers their biggest lead of the game at 57-45.
While Miami hung around, Corhen all but put the game away with 1:11 remaining with a basket in the paint to give Pitt a 10-point lead as the Panthers handed the Hurricanes their 12th loss in the past 14 games.
–Field Level Media
