Pitt looks for its third consecutive victory on Saturday afternoon when it visits Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The Panthers (14-6, 5-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) answered a four-game losing skid with a 77-73 win over Syracuse last Saturday and a 73-65 victory over North Carolina on Tuesday.
The Demon Deacons (15-6, 7-3), in turn, have dropped two straight games after stringing together six consecutive wins. Yet they return home now to host Pitt, which is 0-6 all-time at LJVM Coliseum.
“We’ve just got to regroup,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said on the heels of his team’s 72-59 setback to Louisville on Tuesday. “We’re just halfway through the conference (season). I know it’s a tough loss, but we are 7-3 and we’ve got 10 more (games) to go.”
Hunter Sallis paces the Demon Deacons with 18.6 points per game, averaging 24.6 points over a seven-game stretch before cooling off to 13.0 over the past three.
Wake can also turn to Cameron Hildreth, who scores 13.1 points per game.
The Panthers, who outscored the Tar Heels by a 14-2 margin over the final five-plus minutes on Tuesday, boast an explosive backcourt.
Jaland Lowe, who is averaging 20.2 points over the past five games, has shared the scoring load with Ishmael Leggett. In three games against Wake Forest a year ago, Leggett averaged 22.3 points.
But it has been Pitt’s defense that has set the tone, head coach Jeff Capel said, as well as the Panthers’ commitment to winning 50-50 balls and getting defensive stops.
“I thought we were a really good team” before the four-game skid, Capel said. “We had two weeks where we did not play well. Hopefully these last two games gets us going back to being the team that we were prior to that.”
–Field Level Media
