Panthers Suffer Upset to Providence
12/30/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) - In a matchup of teams that have spent the season upsetting ranked opponents but losing to unranked ones, Providence showed Pittsburgh that momentum can last more than one game in college basketball.
The Friars upset a ranked team for the second time in four days, riding momentum-turning runs in each half and Jamel Thomas' 25 points to an 83-68 victory over No. 23 Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
Thomas, the Big East Conference's leading scorer with a 23.7 average, had 22 points as the Friars defeated then-No. 9 Purdue 87-82 on Sunday.
Providence (8-4) is 3-1 against ranked teams but was 0-2 in the Big East - losing to Notre Dame and Rutgers - before defeating the emotionally flat Panthers (8-5, 0-3), losers of four of five and five of seven.
"When you come off an emotional, uplifting win like Purdue, sometimes as a coach you wonder if you can bounce back," Friars coach Tim Welsh said. "Tonight, we did. We were 0-2 in the Big East, and we've been posting that in the locker room for two weeks."
Pittsburgh, which has beaten only Howard and Prairie View since upsetting defending national champion Kentucky on Nov. 27, may drop out of the Top 25 before playing Jan. 5 at Notre Dame.
"It was a lousy effort from an emotional standpoint," Pitt coach Ralph Willard said. "We wanted to play hard with emotion, play together with emotion but, except for one stretch, there was no emotion at all."
The Friars trailed 44-42 with 15:41 remaining after Pitt scored 14 of the first 18 points in the second half, but turned to their 3-point shooting, pressure defense and ball movement to go on runs of 11-1 and 11-2.
"We wanted to pound the ball inside and match up our inside people against their guards, but we came down four straight times after taking the lead and took 3s," Willard said. "Then our guards must pick up Thomas in transition, and that's a tough matchup."
Llewellyn Cole's tap-in gave Providence the lead for good at 46-44, and Corey Wright quickly followed with a 3-pointer, a driving layup and a baseline jumper to make it 53-45 with 11:18 to play.
With star Vonteego Cummings battling the flu and visibly off his game, the Panthers were outscored 25-8 over a 9 1/2-minute stretch that saw the Friars increase their lead to as many as 16 points. Pitt never got any closer than nine points in the final 9 1/2 minutes.
Cummings scored 17 points on 7-of-19 shooting but was 0-for-5 as Pitt was only 4-of-21 on 3-pointers. Attila Cosby had 14 points and eight rebounds and Isaac Hawkins had 11 rebounds.
"They have some quick guards, and they were getting under Vonteego's skin and getting under all of our guards' skins," Cosby said.
Cummings missed Pitt's last three practices and was so sick Tuesday that he spent the workout huddled under a blanket in Willard's office.
"He didn't have a very high energy level," Willard said, even though Cummings played all but four minutes.
Kendrick Moore scored 14 for the Friars, who were 7-of-14 on 3-pointers. The 6-foot-6 Thomas added 11 rebounds as Providence outrebounded Pitt 38-36.
"The thing about Jamel Thomas is he's too strong for the quick guys and too quick for the strong guys," Welsh said. "Now that he's settled into our system, he's getting his shots and getting his points."
Providence, beating Pitt for the fifth time in their last six games, went on a 13-2 run highlighted by Thomas' difficult, hook shot-like tap-in for a 32-20 lead with 5:15 left in the first half. The Friars led 38-30 at halftime.