Zack Austin scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:35 remaining as Pittsburgh executed down the stretch and earned a 73-65 victory over visiting North Carolina on Tuesday night.
Austin made 5 of 7 shots and none were bigger than his triple with 2:35 left that gave the Panthers (14-6, 5-4 ACC) a 67-65 lead. Austin’s third 3-pointer of the contest came a little over two minutes after he hit a triple with 4:41 left to give Pittsburgh a 64-63 lead and ended a drought of nearly seven minutes without a basket.
Austin also collected five blocks, including one when he blocked a 3-point try by Elliott Cadeau out of bounds with 41 seconds to go to protect a four-point lead.
Jaland Lowe led the Panthers with 18 points and scored 15 by halftime to help the Panthers overcome a 10-point deficit. Ishmael Leggett added 15 and Cameron Corhen chipped in 14 as the Panthers shot 43.6 percent and ended the game with a 14-2 run over the final 5:33 and scored the game’s final nine points.
R.J. Davis scored 16 points but North Carolina (13-9, 6-4) shot 44.1 percent and made 31 percent of its shots in the final 20 minutes. Cadeau added 11 but was in foul trouble while Seth Trimble shot 3-of-14 and was held to 10 points.
The Tar Heels opened a seven-point lead about six minutes in and held a 38-30 lead with 4:34 left after Drake Powell and Davis sank 3-pointers. The lead grew to 44-34 on a hook shot by Ven-Allen Lubin but the Panthers ended the half with eight straight points over the final 2:11 to get within 44-42 by halftime.
Trimble’s layup gave the Tar Heels a 49-42 edge and forced the Panthers to burn a timeout 94 seconds into the second half. Coming out of the timeout, Pittsburgh scored eight straight for a 50-49 lead on a 3 by Damian Dunn with 15:39 left and took a 55-52 lead on a 3 by Guillermo Diaz-Graham with 11:37 remaining.
North Carolina went ahead again when Davis sank a deep 3 with 9:01 remaining to make it 59-57. Cadeau gave the Tar Heels a 65-64 lead on a layup with 3:21 left but North Carolina missed its final seven shots.
