Panthers' road woes continue with loss at Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va. — During Virginia Tech’s recent skid, its fans and players had been searching for answers to help the Hokies solve some of their recent end-of-game issues, particularly after two close losses to Boston College and one to Florida State.

Pitt had been searching for answers to its road struggles.

The Hokies found their answer.

Virginia Tech defended, held its own on the boards, and got a great evening from forward P.J. Horne, who scored a career-high 18 points to lift Virginia Tech to a 67-57 victory over the Panthers.

Horne hit 6 of 9 from the floor, including a career-high four 3-pointers for the Hokies (15-10, 6-8 ACC), who snapped a five-game losing streak. Jalen Cone added 12 points and four 3-pointers for Virginia Tech, which hit 12 3-pointers, its most since making 14 in a 79-77 double-overtime victory over North Carolina, which happened to be its last win before Saturday.

Au’Diese Toney and Justin Champignie scored 12 points each to lead the Panthers (15-11, 6-9), who lost for the fifth time in their past seven games.

Xavier Johnson finished with 11 points for Pitt, which shot just 35% (21 of 60) in losing its fifth straight road game.

“I thought we did some good things, but we have to be able to finish,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “I would imagine we probably missed seven to eight layups, so we have to be able to finish those plays and we have to be able to make free throws (10 of 18). If we can do that, then maybe the outcome would have been a little bit different or a little bit closer.

“We cannot dig ourselves a hole like we did again. We showed we can get up off the mat and fight back, but we have to figure out a way where we don’t have a hole that big.”

Horne, who came into the game averaging 7.1 points, made 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions in the final 3 minutes, 30 seconds to help the Hokies hold off the Panthers. Virginia Tech led by as many as 19 in the second half before Pitt cut the lead to 59-53 on a layup by Abdoul Karim Coulibaly with 3:21 remaining.

Horne, though, hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:06 to go to push the Tech lead to 62-53, and after another Coulibaly layup with 2:51 remaining, Horne connected again, hitting another 3-pointer from the same spot to give the Hokies a 65-55 lead. Pitt got no closer.