Men's Hoops Drops Pittsburgh, 74-66
Feb. 29, 2000
By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Johnny Hemsley scored 21 points and Miami again rolled on the road, beating Pittsburgh 74-66Tuesday night for its 10th victory in its last 11 Big East games.
Mario Bland scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half as the Hurricanes(19-9, 12-3) stayed in the chase for the conference regular-season title withtheir 16th victory in their last 18 Big East road games.
The Hurricanes also swept the Panthers (12-14, 4-11) for the first time inconference play – they had been 1-6 in Pittsburgh – and won their fourth in arow and seventh in eight games overall.
Miami still can win the Big East regular-season title if it beats St. John’son Sunday in Miami and Syracuse (23-3, 12-2) loses Wednesday at Notre Dame andSaturday at Connecticut. If Syracuse and Miami tie, Syracuse wins the title byvirtue of its victory in Miami.
With Hemsley doing the scoring in the first half with 11 points and thephysical, 265-pound Bland taking over in the second half against the depletedPanthers, Miami shook off Pitt comebacks in each half.
Pittsburgh, down to eight players due to injuries and disciplinary actions,trailed by as many as nine points before a Jarrett Lockhart-led rally gave thePanthers a 42-41 lead with 14:42 remaining.
Lockhart, coming off a career-high 30 points against Rutgers, led Pitt with24 points. Ricardo Greer had 21 and 10 rebounds.
But Miami regained the lead at 51-49 on Bland’s basket from the lane, keyinga 10-2 run that saw Bland scored six points and the Hurricanes open a 57-51lead.
Pitt got as close as 62-58 down the stretch, but Bland made two free throwswith 3:37 to play, then scored on a nice pass from Vernon Jennings. Jenningsfroze the defense by faking a shot, only to find Bland open in front of thebasket.
Hemsley, suspended for a 55-52 victory Saturday over Notre Dame fordisciplinary reasons, later pushed the lead back to eight points at 68-60 byhitting a 15-foot jumper with 1:13 to play.
The home game was the last for Pittsburgh, which must beat Providence onMarch 5 and win at least three times in the Big East tournament to finish witha winning record in coach Ben Howland’s first season.
