Pittsburgh Knocks Miami Out Of Big East Tournament, 78-69
March 7, 2001
Post Game Audio
Head coach Perry Clark
By HAL BOCK
AP Sports Writer
NEW YORK – Pittsburgh ended Miami’s Big East season the same way itstarted – with a decisive victory over the Hurricanes 78-69 in the first roundof the Conference tournament Wednesday night.
Ricardo Greer matched his season high with 27 points for the Panthers, whoearned a quarterfinal date Thursday against Notre Dame, which has beaten Pitttwice this season. Donatas Zavackes and Brandin Knight had 16 apiece for thePanthers.
Pittsburgh (16-12) dominated the boards against Miami (16-12) and came awaywith a 40-27 rebounding edge. Greer led the assault on the boards with 11.
Miami was hampered by fouls. John Salmons, the Hurricanes’ second-leadingscorer, picked up three fouls in the first five minutes and sat most of theopening half. He was scoreless in 17 minutes before fouling out late. Leadingscorer Darius Rice managed just five points, including a meaningless 3-pointerwith 12 seconds remaining.
Pittsburgh began its Big East season with a 62-51 victory over Miami, thefirst of four straight conference losses for the Hurricanes. Miami had finishedthe year with four wins in its last five games, two of them against Villanova,which advanced earlier Wednesday with a victory over West Virginia.
Dwayne Wimbley led Miami with a career-high 20 points and James Jones scored18.
