Cold-shooting Pitt remains winless in ACC after loss to No. 8 North Carolina

The missed shots hurt – badly – and Pitt had plenty of those in its 70-57 loss to No. 8 North Carolina on Tuesday night.

Shots that go awry create opportunities for rebounds and second-chance points. But that was no advantage for a Pitt team that lost the battle of physical combat with a stronger, more experienced, craftier Tar Heels team.

The Panthers (9-5) dropped their third of three ACC games this season, losing in front of an excited crowd of 9,770 at Petersen Events Center. They shot 30.9% from the field, were outrebounded, 51-41, and recorded only one second-chance point.

The loss stretched Pitt’s losing streak against Top-10 teams to 16 games and nine seasons.

Pitt came into the game with the ACC’s best rebounding margin (plus 9.2), but North Carolina’s Harrison Ingram had 15 and Armando Bacot 10. Pitt countered with Ismael Leggett’s eight, and he played with a sore shoulder that almost kept him out of the game, coach Jeff Capel said. “He gave us a great effort out there,” he added.

Bacot scored 16 points and R.J. Davis, who came into the game leading the ACC in scoring (21.6 points per game), added 15.

“We had to come up big as far as rebounding the basketball and we did it,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said. “I believe rebounding is the No. 1 determining factor to having success on the floor.”

Aware that he has lots of work ahead of him, Capel tried to find positive elements in a decisive defeat.

“We had some mistakes, but they weren’t mistakes of non-effort,” he said. “It was just youth and North Carolina being good players and those guys making some big-time plays.”

But even within a good defensive effort – the Tar Heels were held 16.3 points short of their season average – the Panthers had problems they couldn’t overcome.

Chief among them was senior Blake Hinson’s shooting slump that has reached three games. Hinson, who is usually a dangerous threat to opponents beyond the 3-point line, is 3 for 22 from that area in the past three games. For perspective, he was 15 of 23 in the three before that.

“I thought in the first half he got some good looks,” Capel said. “I thought we generated some good looks for him. Just didn’t go in.

“I thought he pressed some. Those are the shots, he makes one and it gets him going and it gets us going. So, you live with it.”

But that wasn’t the case against North Carolina. Hinson made a 3-pointer with 12 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half and didn’t make his next one – he was 2 for 11 for the game – until there were 44 seconds to play.

But Hinson wasn’t the only Pitt player who had accuracy problems.

Pitt shot 40% or better in nine of its first 11 games, but 30.9% was its worst percentage of the season.

“I thought early in the game we got some great looks,” Capel said. “I mean wide-open, naked shots and we missed them.

“I thought as the game went on we allowed those misses — I thought it turned us inward where we’ve been so connected (previously). I thought we put pressure on ourselves with every shot because of their physicality and because of how they were defending.

“We missed some shots we usually make,” said freshman guard Bub Carrington, who collected a season-high 20 points.

“You miss shots that you know you can make, you can sort of get out of your game a little bit, get out of your head. In our huddles, we just kept trying to repeatedly tell each other keep your head.”

Pitt was, actually, in the lead for nearly 13 minutes of the first half. But its lead was never more than seven points. Pitt’s defensive effort that held North Carolina scoreless for the first 6:20 of the game and limited the Tar Heels to only 31 points at halftime wasn’t matched at the other end of the floor. Pitt was behind, 31-28, at the break.

“We had opportunities to be up a lot,” Capel said. “We have to be able to drive. We have to be able to play through physicality. The game was very physical. They knocked us off path at times. We have to be able to fight through it.”