Riding a red-hot shooting performance on the road, the 20th-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers defeated the DePaul Blue Demons, 81-66, Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both teams.
Pittsburgh vs. DePaul final score: Panthers shoot their way to victory
Pittsburgh shot 72 percent from the field Saturday afternoon, and that understandably made the team hard to beat.
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One of the nation’s most efficient teams from the field with a shooting percentage better than 47 percent this season, Pittsburgh rarely missed when their guys got open. The Panthers shot 72 percent for the game, including nine makes in 14 attempts from beyond the arc.
Facing a team with just two wins in conference play, the Panthers likely expected this kind of shooting performance to power a blowout, but the Blue Demons impressively kept things interesting by forcing turnovers and getting to the free throw line.
DePaul certainly couldn’t match Pittsburgh’s shooting effort, but the Blue Demons battled to get quality shots and slow down the clock by forcing fouls. With a 16-10 advantage in turnovers and nearly three times as many attempts from the charity stripe, DePaul didn’t look like it was searching for its third win in almost three months.
J.J. Moore was on fire all day for Pittsburgh, knocking down all five of his three-point attempts and all of his shots in general. Moore led Pittsburgh scorers with 21 points, plus Tray Woodall added 18 points and seven rebounds for the Panthers.
Brandon Young led DePaul with 22 points and Worrell Clahar added 19.
The Panthers finish the regular season with a 24-7 overall record (12-6 in conference) while the Blue Demons finish 11-20 (2-16).
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