Pitt rally falls short, loses to Monmouth, drops to 3-7

A day before Pitt’s 56-52 loss to Monmouth on Sunday night, Jeff Capel saw misfortune taking aim on his team.

And it didn’t miss.

“I didn’t think we practiced well (Saturday),” he said, “and I think that led to what we did (Sunday).

“(Monmouth) played with an energy, a pace and a toughness and we didn’t have that, especially in the first 20-24 minutes of the game. We were going to have to be completely dialed in to win this basketball game. Unfortunately, we weren’t.”

No matter how hard Capel coached, cajoled and encouraged in front of his bench at Petersen Events Center, Pitt didn’t play with enough energy to recover from a 19-point, second-half deficit.

The Panthers rallied to within 55-52, but at that point there were only 28 seconds left in the game. Still, the clock couldn’t move fast enough for Monmouth coach King Rice.

“I was watching it closely,” he said. “If that game had three more minutes in it, it would probably be different right now. They needed a little more time.”

But in the time remaining, Pitt never got the ball with a chance to win or even tie, and the result was another loss to a mid-major team.

That makes three amidst the rubble of the Panthers’ 3-7 record (3-6 outside the ACC). Even during the 2017-2018 season – the last of Kevin Stallings’ two seasons that ended in an 0-18 ACC record – Pitt won eight nonconference games.

Sophomore Femi Odulake, who scored 14 points on a sore ankle, shouldered the blame for the loss to Monmouth, admitting that he allowed personal issues to diminish his effort at practice.

“We were sluggish at practice,” he said. “I didn’t have the high intensity energy that I usually have. It followed me onto the game.

“I was thinking about a lot of emotions. Sometimes, people don’t understand that we’re humans at the end of the day. Everybody just looks at us as basketball players and athletes. It’s hard for us to switch it over.”

He said the answer for him is to be “more of a leader … more mature.”

“Can’t take my outside things into the gym.

Odukale didn’t indicate his personal problems were serious. “Everything’s OK,” he said. Meanwhile, Capel said it wasn’t right for Odukale to wear the blame by himself.

“It was all of us,” the coach said. “It’s not on one person to take the fall. That’s on me. That’s on me as the head coach. I didn’t have our guys ready to go. Everyone has to be better.”

The real issue is the way Pitt’s team-wide problems are lingering. It’s an awkward time, with players entering final exam week and getting ready to play St. John’s (8-2) on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Pitt has only two nonconference games remaining — Jacksonville will be the Pete on Dec. 21 — before the ACC season resumes Dec. 28 against Notre Dame.

Pitt’s most glaring deficiency is an inability to score. Pitt has reached the 70s only twice in 10 games. In the previous three games, Pitt had averaged six successful 3-point attempts. Sunday night, the Panthers missed 11 of 13.

Overall, Pitt played a horrible first half, going 13 minutes, 44 seconds without a field goal and falling behind, 36-19, at intermission.

Pitt shot 22.2% (6 of 27) in the first half, 34% (17 of 50) for the game. Jamarius Burton led the Panthers with 15 points while Odukale and John Hugley each recorded 14. No one else scored more than four.

While trying to find an identity, the Panthers are stumbling on offense, evidenced by their 15 turnovers. They’d like to work through Hugley, whose 6-foot-9 size and passing ability can be significant assets. But he is often double-teamed in the paint, without a reliable shooter on the wing to ease the pressure.

“We know, as a coaching staff, teams are going to try to take (Hugley) away. They’ve packed the lane and at times dared us to shoot,” Capel said. “We missed a couple early and it was like we didn’t have the confidence to shoot them.

“We want to get good shots, and we want our guys to have the confidence to take good shots. But in order to do that we have to be together. We have to be connected.

“We don’t have a guy who can break someone down and create a shot for himself and others. That’s not who we are.”