PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Gardner-Webb endured a cold day shooting the basketball, falling to Pittsburgh by a 67-50 score on the road Saturday afternoon.
The Runnin' Bulldogs (0-2) had a streak of six-straight regular season games shooting above 50 percent snapped, finishing at just 29.7 percent from the field (19-of-64) and 20.0 percent from long range (5-of-25).
A solid defensive start for Gardner-Webb was negated by a surprising 0-for-19 start shooting on the other end, as Pittsburgh (4-1) slowly bulled its way to a 14-0 lead with 8:00 on the first half clock.
Anthony Selden finally snapped the drought with a three-pointer 39 seconds later and
Lance Terry heated up late in the half to trim the lead as close as 24-16 after back-to-back threes with 3:11 left before intermission. A pair of
Jordan Sears free throws with 94 seconds left cut the lead to seven points, but the Panthers led 27-18 by halftime.
Pittsburgh used its overall size on the glass to push its lead to double digits for good on a layup by Au'diese Toney with 17:06 remaining. The lead would grow as large as 22 points late in the game.
The Panthers finished at 35.9 percent for the game (23-of-64), but made up for its own cold shooting by hammering the offensive glass to the tune of 20 offensive rebounds – and a 58-38 overall edge on the backboards.
Justin Champagnie finished with 24 points and 21 rebounds, his second game in a row above 20 in those two categories. Xavier Johnson finished with 12 points for the Panthers, as no other Pittsburgh player scored more than six.
Gardner-Webb got a team-high 13 points and four assists from Cornwall and 10 points, six rebounds from Terry. Sears finished with nine points off the bench and Selden scored seven points to go with a pair of blocked shots.
Ludovic Dufeal battled foul trouble to finished with a team-high eight rebounds, as GWU racked up 27 fouls on the day.
Gardner-Webb will finally open its home slate on Friday, December 18, hosting VMI at Noon in Paul Porter Arena. The game will stream live on ESPN+.
