Confidence is growing for Panthers with third win in a row
-
Pitt forward Lamar Patterson tries to get past West Virginia's Kevin Jones to score. -
Tray Woodall celebrates two of his 24 points against West Virginia Monday in Morgantown, W.Va.
Share with others:
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Things were not looking good for Pitt midway through the first half Monday night against West Virginia. The Mountaineers were playing suffocating defense, and the Panthers were about to let the game get away from them.
Then Tray Woodall stepped up and saved the day -- and perhaps the season -- for the Panthers.
Woodall took the game over late in the first half with some scintillating shooting, and the Panthers hung on for a 72-66 victory. It was the third consecutive victory for the Panthers, who had lost eight in a row.
Woodall, a redshirt junior point guard, was 8 for 12 from the field and scored 24 points to pace the Panthers. He was 3 for 5 from 3-point range, with all three of those coming in the first half when he torched the Mountaineers for 16 points.
Woodall scored 11 of those 16 points in the final 6:32 of the half. He confidently knocked down two step-back 3-pointers in the final three minutes before halftime, including one just before the buzzer sounded that netted a 33-29 halftime advantage.
"I'm confident in myself that I can get it going," Woodall said. "I'm a creative point guard first. But at the same time I'm a leader, and if my team needs me to step up and score some baskets, I try to do that for them."
Pitt sorely needed it after scoring just nine points in the first 12 minutes of the half. The Panthers scored 24 points over the final eight minutes, and they never looked back once they took a 30-29 lead with 48 seconds to go before halftime.
"That's a big plus when he does that," senior forward Nasir Robinson said of Woodall's shooting ability.
"When he gets it going like that it's huge."
"He came out and played his heart out," junior center Dante Taylor said.
"He was doing everything he worked on in the offseason tonight. He was doing that dribble and step-back 3. I'm happy for him."
It was Woodall's fourth game back after missing 11 of 12 with an abdominal injury. Pitt is 3-1 in those games with the lone loss coming against Louisville in his first game after missing a month.
"I'm very happy for our guys and how they've battled and what they've become," coach Jamie Dixon said. "As a coach, you always talk about what you can become and what you're going to be. This is a great example of a team continuing to battle and continuing to work."
First Published January 31, 2012 12:00 am
