Pitt beating WVU was 'unbelievable'
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It wasn't the greatest Pitt-West Virginia game of all time. That would be Pitt's 13-9 football win in Morgantown Dec. 1, 2007, a date that will be celebrated forever in Oakland and live in infamy in West Virginia.
It wasn't even the best basketball win at the Petersen Events Center. That would be Pitt's 70-60 victory against Connecticut last season because there's nothing quite like beating the No. 1 team in the country, especially when it's UConn.
Still, Pitt's epic three-overtime win Friday night was terrific. Years from now, at least a few hundred thousand people will claim to have been at The Pete to see it. And the place holds not quite 13,000.
Those who were lucky enough to be in the grand building will never forget it. Those who left when Pitt trailed by seven points with 49.5 seconds left in regulation will never get over it. And those who didn't have a ticket or see it on television, well, they missed something very special.
When it finally ended shortly before midnight and Pitt's 98-95 win was secured, coach Jamie Dixon had to fight his way through the bedlam to the locker room, high-fiving the delirious students in the Oakland Zoo who make the place such a wonderful venue for college basketball. Perhaps prompted by a pregame scoreboard reminder from Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to protect their spotless reputation, the kids were wonderful all night. There were no reprisals for the ugly incidents in the student section at West Virginia Feb. 3 when the Mountaineers thumped Pitt, 70-51. The Pitt students were loud. They had fun. They rocked the arena. And they practically willed the Panthers to the win.
OK, so they weren't all kids.
Was that really Steelers kicker Jeff Reed on the court leading cheers in the second half?
Just another part of a surreal night.
It's no wonder Dixon emerged later from the locker room and kept muttering the same word.
"Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable ... "
Yes, it was.
This wasn't the first time that Pitt crushed the Mountaineers at the Petersen Events Center. Remember Ronald Ramon's winning 3-point shot in 2008, still the only buzzer beater in the building's eight-year history? But this was different. This one stung a West Virginia team that came in ranked No. 5 and likes to think it is a national championship contender.
Unbelievable ...
Start with that comeback at the end of regulation, which Pitt made without its best player, Jermaine Dixon, who had fouled out with 49.5 seconds to go. Sure, the Mountaineers helped by missing three free-throw attempts in the final minute. But Pitt still needed a late steal from Nasir Robinson and a huge 3-point shot from Ashton Gibbs to send it to overtime.
First Published February 14, 2010 12:00 am
