Pittsburgh Basketball finished its four-game homestand with a first-ever ACC matchup against the Stanford Cardinal. Like in the previous game versus Cal, the Cardinal got off to an early lead, forcing the Panthers to catch up. And just like with the Bears, a big run by Pitt gave them the lead, and they never looked back, winning 83-68.
Here are the keys to the victory for Pittsburgh Basketball
1. Ish Leggett dominant in his return
After missing the Cal game due to an ankle injury suffered in practice, the senior guard looked just fine in the win over Stanford. He had a big individual run to give Pitt the lead and was unstoppable for Stanford to guard. Leggett finished with 21 points and six rebounds on an efficient 9/13 shooting. And the Panthers may get another guard back soon, as Damian Dunn was shooting in warm-ups, recovering from a thumb injury.
2. Containing Maxime Raynaud in final 30 minutes
The reason why the Panthers were down early was because Stanford star big man Maxime Raynaud made everything early, scoring 11 points in the first eight minutes. But he took just two field goal attempts in the final 10 minutes of the first half, which allowed the Panthers to take a double-digit lead. The doubles and overall pressure to get the ball out of his hands forced other Cardinal players to step up, but they never could. Everyone outside of Raynaud shot 11/41 from the field in the loss.
3. Big games from both Diaz-Graham brothers
Both Jorge and Guillermo Diaz-Graham had quality games in this one, combining to produce 18 points and eight rebounds while making 4/7 from three-point range. We saw them play together alongside Cam Corhen in lineups, something Stanford couldn’t counter.
With Dunn set to return soon, their minutes are likely to drop as a result. But maybe Coach Jeff Capel won’t shorten the rotation too much, as the twins' shooting and size can still be factors. That’ll be the case when they face off against the biggest ACC team, the Duke Blue Devils.