John Hugley's late basket breaks tie, leads Pitt to victory against Colgate

Pitt broke a four-game losing streak Thursday night at Petersen Events Center, but the 71-68 victory against Colgate was only part of what has pleased Jeff Capel in the past week.

After all, it was only one victory against a team that left Pittsburgh with a 4-6 record.

But Capel is trying to build a program, and what happens when the doors are locked at practice — and coaches are the only people watching — matters just as much as the win-loss record.

John Hugley scored 22 points, including the decisive tiebreaking basket with two seconds left that gave him 80 in the past four games. But the team revealed even more for its coach to admire in the days leading into the game.

Tough one-point, last-second losses to Minnesota and Virginia last week could have sent the Panthers over the edge and led to another defeat. But the team never fell into a dark place and, finally, found some light – even if it was only enough to lift Pitt’s record to 3-6.

“One of the things that I’m really proud of with this team and I really admire – with what we’ve been through and, especially, the last couple games, how we’ve lost – is how they have continued to get off the mat,” he said.

The loss to Minnesota was followed by some of the best practice days of the season, Capel said. And he added that it was no coincidence that his team played well in defeat three days later at Virginia.

Then, after losing to Virginia on the road without starting point guard Femi Odukale (ankle), the next few practices this week were equally fruitful, according to Capel.

“I admire that because we lost a heart-breaker,” he said. “And to go through what we went through (at Virginia) and to come back Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we had really good attitudes, just really good practices.

“It’s good for them to be rewarded with a win and be able to fight through and earn a win in the fashion that we did tonight.

“Sometimes, you have to go through the valley, and we’ve been through it. I’m not saying we’re out of it, but we’re figuring out how to climb out of it.

“We have a better understanding, collectively as a group, how much we need each other. That’s something we’ve been talking about, really, since I took the job here.

“When you keep getting gut-punched like we have, it’s easy to fracture. This group so far has stayed together and if we continue to do that, I think we’ll start to turn the corner. (Thursday) was a big step.”

For a while in the second half, it appeared Pitt would lose another lead. The Panthers led by 11 with 14 minutes, 20 seconds remaining, but Colgate fought back and led 68-65 with 1:24 left.

What followed were a series of big plays by Pitt on both ends of the court. Mouhamadou Gueye drove the lane, scored, was fouled and converted the free throw to tie the score.

Then, it was Odukale’s turn to step forward. He defended Colgate’s Nelly Cummings, a Lincoln Park graduate who played in front of a loud group of friends and family, as he missed his sixth consecutive 3-point attempt. That was significant because Cummings, who did finish with 17 points, came into the game shooting 55.2% (32 of 58) from beyond the arc. Odukale also blocked Cummings’ 2-point attempt to ensure the victory after Hugley’s game-winner.

As a team, Colgate was averaging 12 long-range bombs per game, but Pitt held the Raiders to six.

Capel left nothing to chance in his preparation, schooling his team on four ways to stop 3s – containing transition and penetration, defending ball screens and controlling rebounds.

“I thought we did a pretty good job in all of those areas,” Capel said. “We made toughness plays.”

That was especially true of Gueye’s game-tying play and how Hugley played through contact.

“Teams are very, very physical with him. He’s done a really good job of keeping his head,” Capel said.

“It’s a lot of attention and I love it,” Hugley said. “It’s been happening since I was in high school. It’s probably going to happen when I get to the league.”

Hugley scored 22 points in 21 minutes because Capel put him on the bench with foul trouble for significant periods in both halves.

Capel said he needs Hugley to be in the game longer than barely half of it. He almost fouled out, but he was there at the end. Pitt beat one of the “almosts” that have plagued the team all season.

“We’ve been a team the past few games of almosts. We almost got the rebound. We almost whatever,” Capel said.

“We have to get past almost and I thought we did that. That’s all we talked about (at timeouts). We’re tired of almost.”