Ithiel Horton made all five of his 3-point point attempts and racked up 19 points as Pittsburgh stunned host North Carolina 76-67 on Wednesday night at Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Panthers shot 51.1 percent from the field to stretch their winning streak to a season-high three games, with two of those successes coming on the road.
It was a devastating result for North Carolina (18-8, 10-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), which had been within a game of first place in the ACC entering the week.
John Hugley scored 18 points, Jamarius Burton tallied 14 points and Mouhamadou Gueye had 11 points for the Panthers (11-16, 6-10), who held a 21-point lead in the second half.
Caleb Love’s 19 points led North Carolina, while Brady Manek posted 12 points and Leaky Black and Kerwin Walton each had 11 points.
North Carolina had a two-game winning streak snapped. The Tar Heels had won six of their last seven games, with the only misstep during that stretch coming against first-place Duke.
Pittsburgh committed 18 of the game’s 31 turnovers, but those weren’t enough for the Tar Heels to overcome 41.4-percent shooting from the field. The Panthers were out of timeouts with more than four minutes remaining.
North Carolina showed life with Walton hitting consecutive 3-pointers, closing the gap to 59-46 with 7:05 to play. That pushed Walton to a double-figure scoring total for the first time since the third game of the season.
Pittsburgh committed four turnovers during a 3½-minute stretch to allow the Tar Heels to start a rally. The gap dipped to 69-63 with 1:50 to play. After turnovers by both teams, Hugley converted a three-point play.
Love had 15 of North Carolina’s 17 points during the heart of the comeback.
The Panthers were 18-for-20 on free throws, including making all 14 attempts in the second half.
Pittsburgh broke out to a 29-14 lead courtesy of a 21-2 run. That was a stark contrast for the Tar Heels, who scored the first 18 points in Saturday’s rout of visiting Florida State.
The lead ballooned to 38-21 later in the half. Pittsburgh made six of its first nine attempts from 3-point range.
The Panthers posted 60-percent shooting in the first half compared to North Carolina’s 27.6 percent.
– Field Level Media
