Pitt’s Mike Cook holds the Big East tourney championship trophy at the Garden last night after the Panthers’ 74-65 win over George town in the title game. The win brought tears of joy to Pitt star Levance Fields of Brooklyn (inset). Getty Images photos
Before March Madness there was Manhattan Madness.
Pittsburgh and Georgetown turned the Garden into a Big East battle of thrills and wills last night in the Big East Conference championship game.
They rained 3’s on each other and played medieval defense. They dove for loose balls and crashed bodies for rebounds.
The Hoyas and Panthers reminded the sellout crowd that there will always be debate over which is the best conference, but there is no doubt that the Big East is the toughest.
With NYC players on both teams and rosters loaded with ballers from the hoop hotbeds of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, this was the city game with a title at stake.
The Panthers epitomized toughness by becoming just the second team in tournament history to win the title despite having to play four consecutive games. No bye, no problem.
The No. 7-seeded Panthers upset top-seeded Georgetown 74-65 to claim their second tournament title – avenging last year’s 65-42 loss to the Hoyas in the title game.
Pitt also established itself as the league’s program of the decade. It was the 100th win for the Pitt seniors led by Ronald Ramon of The Bronx, who had a team-high 17.
This was Pittsburgh’s seventh title game in the last eight years and its third straight. Panthers are 23-8 in the Garden since 2000-01, including 6-0 this season. Coach Jamie Dixon tells them at every shoot-around that this is their second home.
“We love playing in New York,” said Dixon, a Bronx native. “We have New York guys. We’ll do anything we can to play in the Garden. We’ll change schedules around. We’ll change events around. We want to get our kids back here.”
Georgetown (27-5) was seeking to become just the second team in league history to win back-to-back regular-season and tournament titles. The loss might have cost the Hoyas a second straight No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“They just played like they wanted to win,” said Georgetown guard Jessie Sapp of Harlem, who was named to the all-tournament team. “They did a lot of hustle plays. You wouldn’t have known that they just played four games.”
Pittsburgh (26-9) almost saw its season shattered beyond repair when forward Mike Cook, the heart and soul of the team, tore up his knee in a 65-64 overtime win over Duke here on Dec. 20. Star guard Levance Fields of Brooklyn suffered a broken foot in the next game. Pitt lost two other role players to injury during that span.
“Four games in four days, we’ve been through a lot more than that this year,” said Dixon.
After opening the season 11-0, the Panthers went 8-8 before Fields, who had 10 points, six assists and three boards last night, returned just in time for trophy time. He struggled in his first few games back but was fearless and fantastic in this tournament.
The first half was beautifully brutal. There were six lead changes and three ties before Pitt took a 31-28 lead to the locker room before wearing down Georgetown in the second half.
Pitt out-rebounded Georgetown 19-9 on the offensive glass and went to the line 44 times.