Brogdon’s 3-pointer gives Virginia win

PITTSBURGH — Virginia guard Malcolm Brogdon made it clear that he had never made a game-winning shot in his basketball career.

That changed Sunday afternoon.

Brogdon’s 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left lifted Virginia over No. 18 Pittsburgh 48-45 at Petersen Events Center in front of a crowd of 12,508.

“It was shocking,” Brogdon said of the shot. “The shot felt good and I thought it was going in right when it left my hand.”

The loss was Pittsburgh’s second straight defeat at home after a loss to Duke last Monday night.

“Not a good week for us, we simply didn’t get it done,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “Throughout the game, we just have to do a better job offensively and defensively.”

Brogdon scored a game-high 16 points and finished his performance off with the biggest shot of his young career.

“That was a hard-fought game,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “There just weren’t a lot of easy looks out there. It just kept staying tight and you knew it was going to come down to a score and a stop.”

Guard Joe Harris added 11 points for Virginia while forward Akil Mitchell recorded a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

“It was a tough, hard-fought game,” Harris said. “Defensive battle and neither team was going to give an inch. We came into halftime excited because that’s how we want to play.”

The Panthers had a chance of their own to take the lead late in the game but guard James Robinson’s 3-pointer, along with forward Jamel Artis’ putback layup came up short, giving the Cavaliers the last possession with nine seconds left.

“If you give me our three versus their three that they hit, I’d rather have our three,” Dixon said. “You go through the different things we had, I thought we had some pretty good looks.”

Virginia executed their final possession to perfection as a bevy of screens were set to leave Brogdon with the wide-open 3-point attempt.

“We run that (play) a lot in practice and we never make it in practice,” Bennett said. “You’d rather make it in the game than in practice but that was good for Malcolm.”

Pittsburgh (18-4, 6-3 ACC) took a 25-21 lead with 18:57 left in the second half, which was the largest lead of the game for either team. There were 17 ties and seven lead changes in the game.

Artis led Pittsburgh with 11 points off the bench while guard Lamar Patterson scored 10 points but was hampered by foul trouble the whole game.

Virginia (17-5, 8-1) shot 39.1 percent from the field for the game while Pittsburgh shot 31.9 percent. The Cavaliers outrebounded the Panthers 33-32 and committed nine turnovers while the Panthers coughed up the ball seven times.

The Cavaliers were held without a field goal for over six minutes down the stretch until the late three by Brogdon sealed the win for Virginia.

“We got some decent looks,” Bennett said. “We had to get to the line and do some things and the defense has to hold them. Jamie does such a good job and against a team that plays that great of defense in the half court, you can’t expect to break them down.”

Both offenses struggled in the first half as Pitt used a layup by guard Cameron Wright at the buzzer to take a 23-21 lead into the halftime break.

Neither team led by more than three points as there were eight ties and four lead changes.

Virginia’s first-half turnovers led to nine Panthers’ points, and shot just 37.5 percent from the field — led by Brogdon’s seven points. Mitchell added six points and six rebounds.

The Panthers also shot 37.5 percent in the first half. Wright scored six points in the first 20 minutes while Patterson added five.

Notes: This was the 11th all-time meeting between Virginia and Pittsburgh with the Cavaliers leading the series 8-3. … Virginia is 1-3 against ranked opponents this season, losing to VCU, Wisconsin and Duke. … Pittsburgh has a 12-2 record at Petersen Events Center this season. … Virginia ranked first in the country in scoring defense entering