News / Sports
NCAA Tournament Scores: Pittsburgh Panthers Survive Huge Scare from VCU in Overtime
The number three seeded Pittsburgh Panthers survived a huge comeback from the number eleven seeded Virginia Commonwealth Rams to win 84-79 in overtime and advance to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament.
Pittsburgh had built a 15 point lead at halftime and it appeared as if they would cruise passed the Cinderella hopeful but the Rams had other ideas. The Panthers were up by 16 with just under nine minutes remaining in the game when the Rams caught fire from deep.
The Rams hit five three-pointers and took advantage poor foul-shooting from the Panthers to fight their way back. Pittsburgh missed five free-throws in the last five minutes of the game including a pair from Levance Fields with two seconds.
Fields made up for the pair of misses in overtime with a big three-pointer to put the Panthers up by four with three minutes remaining. Ronald Ramon then put Pittsburgh up by seven with another triple and VCU couldn’t stage another comeback.
Sam Young led the Panthers with 15 points while Aaron Gray finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds. VCU had 14 more shot attempts than the Panthers but hit 40 percent from the field while Pittsburgh knocked down 54 percent of their attempts.
