Burton, Gueye lead Pitt's gritty last-second 59-57 win over St. John's

Pitt finally landed on the winning side of a last-second win in its 59-57 win over St. John's at Madison Square Garden Saturday.

After losing three of its last four, two of those coming in last-second buzzer beaters against Minnesota and Virginia, Pitt got a heroic finish from Jamarius Burton, who led the Panthers with 20 points.

For the first 16 minutes of the second half, Pitt had only held a lead for a brief 17 seconds as St. John's controlled a close game. But with about four minutes to go, Burton led a 7-2 run that featured six consecutive made free throws from him to push Pitt to a 57-55 lead with just 16 seconds left.

Then, St. John's got the ball to its leading scorer Dylan Addae-Wusu who drove to the basket and drew a shooting foul on John Hugley IV after Addae-Wusu tripped on his own feet. The guard hit both free throws to finish with 12 points and tied it up with 8.1 seconds left for the Panthers.

Jeff Capel called a timeout, and drew up the call for Burton to take it coast-to-coast and trust the senior transfer point guard from Texas Tech to take the last shot. This time, the Panthers were the ones delivering the heartbreaker in the final second:

Burton committed his fair share of mistakes in the game, as he and Femi Odukale each committed five turnovers to be the most of Pitt's 18 on the day. But even through those struggles, Capel and his Panthers kept trusting Burton to be the leader in the tough moments of the final minutes.

Burton wasn't alone among Pitt's new transfer players making an impact, as Mouhammadou Gueye finished with 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Beyond just the stats, Gueye was also a consistent defensive presence throughout the game who cut off driving lanes in the paint and drew offensive fouls to force turnovers.

When Pitt held a 56-55 lead with 1:40 to go, St. John's Montez Mathis found an opening with a clear path to the basket, but Gueye would come from behind, get a clean block on the shot, then got the rebound and saved the possession by passing the ball back to Burton for a big stop for the Panthers.

“One of the biggest plays," Capel said of the moment after the game. "I mean there were so many, Moe (Gueye) got beat on a drive but he didn’t give into it. He pursued it. He made, not only did he make a heck of a block, but he saved it and got us another possession."

It was several defensive possessions like that which kept Pitt in range of St. John's on a day the Panthers shot 32 percent from the field, the lowest shooting performance on the season for a team with a 41.7 season-long average that ranked next-to-last in the ACC going into Saturday. 

The other aspect that saved the Panthers was their free throws, hitting 23 of 28 from the stripe for a season high 82 percent. That's a significant step up from their 64 percent from the stripe coming into the game, which was the worst in the ACC. Leading that effort, again, was Burton who hit 9 of 10 free throws, and Gueye who hit 6 of 6.

Those efforts backed up Pitt's leading sophomores in Odukale and Hugley, both who struggled to score with Odukale scoring just 6 instead of his average of 10.8, and Hugley scoring just 7 instead of his average of 15.1 on the season that leads the team.

St. John's was missing its leading scorer Julian Champagnie, twin brother of Pitt's Justin Champagnie who went to the Toronto Raptors after becoming the Panthers' first ever First Team All-ACC player last season. St. John's Champagnie led the team with 20.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game on the year, but tested positive for COVID-19 leading up to the game and couldn't play.

"I know they had a really good player out," Capel said. "First and foremost, I hope he (Julian Champagnie) is okay and hope he gets better. We have so much love for that family and for Julian, obviously the relationship with Justin and his family. Still, they have a really good basketball team and they’re a very confident, they’re a very well-coached team."

The win for Pitt came over one of the Big East's best teams so far this season as the Red Storm was 8-2 heading into the game. Beating that team with the Panthers' worst shooting performance of the season shows how hard Pitt's players fought through a tough game and how hard they've been fighting despite their losing record. 

Despite the Panthers' several injuries this season and that Pitt will finish with its first losing record in non-conference games, Capel's players haven't quit fighting to play tough and keep games close.

"The thing I’m most proud of is that we stuck together through adversity," Capel said. "Through not shooting the basketball well, you know we still stuck together. We did it, defensively. We stepped up and made big plays. Not just shots, but you know taking the charge, the blocks and saving it, getting loose balls, things like that."

It was the kind of ugly win Capel has described after several games this season when talking about how his Panthers will need to win their games this season. Pitt held St. John's with only one field goal in the final five minutes of the game. The win lifts the Panthers to a 4-7 record with one final non-conference game against Jacksonville, Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center.

“Hopefully a huge (difference)," Capel said about the potential impact of the win. "Being able to come on the road even though it’s a neutral place, we’re still in New York and this is St. John’s city. We looked at it as a road game. To be able to come in here and to be able to beat a team that’s a really good team, its great. (Hopefully) this does infuse in us what we can do it if we stay together and we compete together all the time.”