Pitt vs. Boston College Preview
Kevin Wheeler, Sports Director
The last time the Panthers faced off with Boston College, they squeaked out a win in Chesnut Hill after the Eagles missed open lay-ups at both the end of regulation and overtime. This time, Pitt gets to take advantage of their home court, where they have been playing their best basketball of late.
Don’t be surprised if Pitt plays down to their competition on Tuesday, as they’ve done numerous times this season in losses to Clemson and Virginia Tech. After all, the “Pitt” thing to do would be to lose this game at home to a bad team when they desperately need to win out of the regular season if they want to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
I’m going to remain optimistic, though, and give Pitt the upper hand in this one.
The final score of this one won’t be nearly as close as the one-point overtime snoozer with the Eagles back in January that showed many Pitt fans just how bad the Panthers were at that point in the season. This is a new team and a different time. The Panthers have manned up on defense and started to shoot well from long range. Both of which have directly contributed to wins over No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 12 North Carolina and two wins over ex-Big East rival Syracuse.
With the momentum that Pitt is carrying heading into this one, I don’t see them dropping this contest. Jamel Artis and Mike Young will have a field day against the BC front court defense and lead the Panthers to victory yet again, showing the Eagles just how much of a difference a home court can make.
Pitt 84, Boston College, 68
Tyler Turner, Staff
Pitt is coming off a very impressive victory at Syracuse on Saturday. Although most people aren’t giving the panthers much credit for this win, Pitt showed they weren’t giving up on making a run to the NCAA Tournament. Chris Jones highlighted the Pitt win with a career high 19 points, and a ridiculous 83% from the three-point line.
Now the panthers look to Boston College, who is 1-13 in the ACC and 9-17 overall. The last time these two teams met Pitt squeaked out a 1-point victory in OT; however at that point in the season Pitt was a totally different team than they are now. They had been blown out by NC State and looked like they had no chance to make the tournament. Pitt now sits at 18-10 with two top 15 wins and a nice road win at Syracuse. This time around it’ll be a different game for both sides, as Pitt should glide to an easy win against the BC eagles.
Jamel Artis has been on fire over the last month, allowing him to pass Michael Young as the leading scorer for Pitt at 13.1 ppg. Artis had just 4 points against BC in January, but against the eagles this time I see Artis scoring at least 20.
Pitt won’t struggle as they did the first time around. Hopefully Pitt can break out to a big lead, so fans at the Pete can witness the likes of Joshua Ko and Mike Lecak. The Panthers will handle BC winning easy.
Pitt 75, Boston College 63
