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Sunday, January 26, 2003

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Two wrongs made it all right for Pitt.

	Georgetown's Drew Hall fouls Julius Page with less than a second remaining, setting up Pitt's winning free throw yesterday. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette photos) ... a word from our columnist Ron Cook: Knight in command when it counts

Jaron Brown's long pass wasn't part of the plan, and Georgetown's plan went awry because a usually erratic free-throw shooter was a perfect 10 from the line.

After all the fouls, technicals, finger-pointing, plot twists of a dime-store novel and pushing and shoving was over, second-ranked Pitt stood tall as a 65-64 winner against Georgetown before a raucous sellout of 12,508 at Petersen Events Center yesterday.

It was old-time Big East Conference basketball at its best, or worst, depending on your point of view.

In a game that had six players foul out, including four from Georgetown, it was appropriate the outcome was settled by a free throw. Pitt's Julius Page made the first of a two-shot attempt with 0.4 seconds remaining, then purposely missed the second although it didn't look much different than many of the other free throws by the Panthers that didn't go into the basket.

The Panthers are 15-1 and 5-0 in the Big East for the first time.

Page was fouled by Drew Hall after catching a three-quarter-court pass from Jaron Brown, who threw it in from the baseline with 3.5 seconds remaining.

"My first instinct was to drive to the basket," said Page, a 75 percent shooter from the free-throw line who had missed one with 23 seconds to go. "I'm a junior, I have to make clutch shots like that."

His teammates never doubted he would.

"He's going to make it. I was positive," said Brandin Knight, who had 10 points, 5 assists, 5 turnovers and 3 steals before fouling out with 16 seconds left.

As for Brown's impromptu pass, Howland said: "I'm thinking, don't throw it long because it might go out of bounds. He saw him open, he threw it. God bless him."

Howland said Brown's first option was to throw a short inbounds pass to Carl Krauser, who would then dribble up the floor and "throw the thing in."

Sometimes the best laid plans of coaches and young men ...

"I wasn't supposed to throw it," said Brown, a natural left-hander who fired the ball with his right hand. "I thought Carl was going to get trapped and I saw Julius wide open." He laughed. "As long as it works, [Howland] didn't say anything."

Brown's daring pass and Page's winning free throw came moments after Georgetown's Brandon Bowman had calmly made two free throws to tie it, 64-64, with 3.5 seconds left. Bowman drove to the basket and was fouled by Donatas Zavackas.

Chevon Troutman: 20 points, including 10 of 10 at the line.

That set the stage for the Brown-to-Page connection against Georgetown's scrambling defense.

"Clearly, if we had a chance to do it over, we can't let the pass get all the way down the court,"said Georgetown Coach Craig Esherick, whose Hoyas are 10-5, 2-3 in the Big East. "It was a breakdown. Of course, I didn't want them to leave Page open."

But Esherick was proud of his team's effort against a Pitt team that unquestionably is the most physical in the Big East. The Hoyas had a 35-29 advantage in rebounds to become the first team to outrebound the Panthers this season.

"We gave as good as we got," Esherick said. "We had a chance to win against a very good team on a very good home court."

The Hoyas stood toe to toe against the Panthers in a matchup worthy of heavyweights.

"They weren't going to let us push them around," Page said. "They pushed back."

But the Hoyas didn't have an answer for Troutman, a muscular 6-foot-7, 245-pound sophomore who had 20 points on 5 of 5 from the field and 10 of 10 from the free-throw line. He entered as a 43 percent free-throw shooter and left the game at 54 percent.

"We went in knowing they had some guys who had not made a lot of free throws," Esherick said. "Ten for 10, that's a great way to step up on his part. I don't think we intentionally tried to put them on the foul line, but I was a lot less worried giving fouls under the basket.

"They did a much better job [shooting fouls] than they usually do."

Pitt did its usual good job of making Georgetown's 6-8, 270-pound Mike Sweetney disappear throughout the game. Sweetney was caught in the web of Pitt's zone, with the guards dropping down to front him and one or two wide-body Panthers blocking his path to the basket.

Sweetney, held to a career-low six points when the teams met last season, made 5 of 9 shots from the field and had 12 points, about 10 below his average. He had five rebounds, half as many as he usually gets per game.

Without Sweetney's dominating presence, Georgetown relied on Tony Bethel and Bowman, who each had 16 points.

"We played great team defense [to contain Sweetney]," Howland said. "We were rotating down on Sweetney and trying to keep him from getting touches. Georgetown's a very athletic team, and we got their best shot."

NOTES -- Pitt made its first eight shots from the field in the second half to rally from a 29-25 deficit to take its biggest lead at 48-37. Brown's 3-pointer gave the Panthers their first lead at 36-35. ... Georgetown went on an 11-0 run to make it 48-48 on Gerald Riley's 3-pointer. ... Zavackas, who entered shooting 78 percent from the free-throw line, missed both tries with 14 seconds left. ... Georgetown's biggest lead was seven points (three times) in the first half. ... Pitt had 15 assists and 16 turnovers; Georgetown had 17 and 11. ... Ontario Lett had four of Pitt's seven blocks. ... Pitt shot 7 of 26 in the first half and 11 of 17 in the second half. ... Pitt attempted 14 3-pointers in the first half and three in the second and finished 5 of 17 beyond the arc. ... Howland said Mark McCarroll, a 6-10 redshirt sophomore, wasn't in uniform for the second consecutive game because of a calf injury. ... Pitt most likely will remain No. 2 in The Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls because top-ranked Arizona impressively defeated No. 6 Kansas, 91-74. ... Pitt's next game is at Syracuse at 7 p.m. Saturday.