PITTSBURGH — West Virginia lost a basketball game it couldn’t lose Thursday night at the Petersen Events Center, but that’s becoming pretty common place these days.
Pitt put an end to a bruising but entertaining Backyard Brawl when guard Ronald Ramon got an open look at a 3 on a defensive mix-up and drilled it to give the 21st-ranked Panthers a 55-54 victory.
That it happened wasn’t surprising, in that Pitt now has won 93 and lost 9 games on its home court since the Pete was opened.
How it happened is another story entirely.
There are those who will tell you West Virginia lost the game because of 10 free throws they missed.
Others will argue the Mountaineers lost it because of two free throws they made.
If that challenges your imagination, here was the situation.
With 4:58 to go and WVU trailing, 48-45, Pitt’s DeJuan Blair was whistled for a foul on a rebound as he fought Cam Thoroughman and Joe Alexander for the ball.
Alexander, who had already missed two free throws, stepped to the line and calmly hit two foul shots.
All the while, as Alexander was shooting, Panther coach Jamie Dixon was pleading — no, begging — with the officials to look at a replay because he felt Thoroughman, not Alexander, had been fouled. Alexander is an 81.6 percent free-throw shooter, Thoroughman a 50 percent shooter with just one of two made.
Calmly, Alexander dropped both free throws home.
Had the game continued at that point, and Pitt inbounded the ball, there could have been no further appeal, but coach Bob Huggins made what turned out to be a tactical mistake.
He called time out from the bench.
During the timeout, the officials decided to view the replay, ruled that Thoroughman had been fouled. That is a reversible error. They erased Alexander’s two points, giving the ball to Thoroughman, who promptly missed the front end of his 1-and-1.
Would those two points have made a difference in a one-point game?
Don’t ask.
“He fouled me,” Thoroughman admitted. “But Joe went to the line.”
He had no doubt about that, considering that Blair is a 265-pound mountain of a man.
“Especially by that guy. He’s a big boy,” said Thoroughman.
Huggins, who has coached more than 600 victories, says he has never been involved in a game where points were taken off the board because of the wrong free-throw shooter, but admitted the officials made the right call.
Besides, he was far more upset about the Ramon field goal at the buzzer, which led to a second one-point loss in their last three losses and their third loss of the season by two or fewer points.
During a timeout before that possession, Huggins instructed his players to switch their man-to-man defense on every cross.
“Four guys switched. One guy decided to push up. We got screened. Wellington (Smith) thought he had to help.”
The result was the unthinkable, an open 3 from the man Huggins had told his team they couldn’t let beat them.
The truth is that it’s hard to imagine that WVU had a shot at winning at all on the road against the No. 21 team in the nation when it shot only 35.8 percent from the field, 41.2 percent from the free-throw line and got 3 of 20 baskets combined by Da’Sean Butler and Alexander.
Toss into that mix the fact that Alex Ruoff shot only once and scored five points and it’s a miracle that the Mountaineers weren’t blown out.
They were in it only because of solid defense until the final play and a magnificent performance by Joe Mazzulla, who hit 6 of 7 shots, 3 of 4 of them from 3-point range, for 15 points. Darris Nichols was the only other offensive threat with 16 points.
But none of that mattered for it all resulted in a one-point loss.
“I can’t put into words the feeling,” said Mazzulla.
Thoroughman could put it into words.
“I’m dying,” he said. “I don’t know what to say. We leave their best shooter wide open for a 3.”
It is as Huggins summed it up.
“Winners find ways to win,” the coach said.
Conversely. ...
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
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