Georgetown hands Pittsburgh their first Big East loss

By Dale Grdnic

PITTSBURGH -- That thud heard emanating from Oakland was the Pitt men's basketball team's eight-game winning streak and undefeated start to the Big East season coming to an abrupt halt.

Pittsburgh fought gamely, but in the end poor free-throw shooting and off games by key players -- as well as hot shooting by opposing guard Chris Wright -- led to Georgetown's 74-66 win against the Panthers Wednesday night at the Petersen Events Center.

Pitt falls to 15-3 overall, 5-1 in the Conference, while the Hoyas are 14-3 and 5-2. The Panthers, who were ranked ninth this week, also had their 31-straight home winning streak snapped and dropped to 125-11 overall and 51-10 against Big East opponents at the Pete.

"We're very disappointed in the outcome, because I thought we really could have played better,'' Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "And I really haven't felt that we've defended as well as we need to the past couple of games, and it caught up to us tonight. So, we've got to do a better job of that in the future.

"But we got beat by a very good team. They're well-coached, shot it well, and played good defense. (But) we need to play better to get ready for Seton Hall. ... They hit five 3s to start the game, and really we just didn't defend for the whole part of it. (And) we didn't make some open shots, so you have to win with your defense. And we just didn't play well enough to do that.''

While Dixon lamented Pitt's poor defense several times during his post-game comments and noted that the Panthers did not play well enough defensively against Connecticut or Louisville, either, despite winning the game. However, the most glaring numbers on the stat sheet came from Pitt's guards.