Panthers Head to Madison Square Garden to Play St. John’s in the Gotham Classic

Pitt (3-7, 0-1 ACC) vs. St. John's (8-2, 0-0 Big East)
Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021 • 12:00 PM
New York, N.Y. • Madison Square Garden
FS1 • 93.7 The Fan

The Opening Tip
• Pitt travels to Madison Square Garden to face St. John's Saturday, Dec. 18 in a Gotham Classic matchup. Tipoff is set for noon with John Fanta and Tarik Turner calling the game for FS1.
• The Panthers are 5-1 all-time in the Gotham Classic with a 71-68 win over Colgate and a 56-52 loss to Monmouth in this season's event.
• Pitt's past four games have been decided by five points or fewer and by a combined nine points overall. The Panthers are 2-3 on the season in games decided by five points or fewer.
• Pitt is 32-18 at Madison Square Garden since the 2000-01 season, claiming Big East Championship titles in 2003 and 2008. The 2008 championship run featured five wins in five days at MSG.
• John Hugley has scored in double figures in five consecutive games and a team-best eight times this season. He leads Pitt in scoring (15.9 ppg.) and rebounds (8.0 rpg.) and is 51-of-98 (.520) on two-point field goal attempts and 48-of-70 (.686) from the foul line.
• Jamarius Burton has scored in double figures in each of the past three games, including a season-high 15 points in his last outing. He is averaging 13.0 points per game in that span.
• Pitt has held its past four opponents to 5.8 three-point field goal per game and 26.2 percent (23-of-88) shooting from beyond the arc. The Panthers ' opposition made 59 threes (9.8 3pg.) over the first six contests of the season.

By The Numbers
• Pitt is 47-46 all-time at Madison Square Garden, including a 94-69 win over Davidson in the marquee game of the 2015 Gotham Classic.
• The Panthers have won each of the past two and four of the past five meetings against St. John's at Madison Square Garden.
• Pitt has won eight of the past nine meetings against the Red Storm with seven of the eight victories coming by 10 or more points. The lone loss in that stretch was a 60-59 decision at MSG Feb. 19, 2011.
• John Hugley has scored 20 or more points four times and also has four double-doubles on the season. He currently ranks among the league leaders in scoring (9th - 15.9 ppg.), rebounds (6th - 8.0 rpg.), field goal percentage (15th - .470) and offensive rebounds (2nd - 3.10 orpg.).
• Jamarius Burton is averaging 9.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 31.5 minutes per game after missing five weeks of action including Pitt's first two games of the season due to injury. He has scored 10+ points in each of the past three games and 31 times in his career.
• Pitt is playing without its top five scorers from a season ago with a season-ending injury to Nike Sibande, a suspension of Ithiel Horton, the departure of Justin Champagnie to the NBA and two offseason transfers. Femi Odukale (6.6 ppg.) and John Hugley (5.1 ppg.) are the only returning players to average better than 5.0 points per game last season. The tandem has combined for 13 double-figure scoring games and an average of 27.2 points per game.
• Femi Odukale is averaging 13.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 44.6 percent (58-of-130) from the field in 13 career games when playing over 25 minutes. He has scored in double figures in eight of those 13 contests.
• William Jeffress has grabbed five or more rebounds seven times and is averaging 6.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game for the season. He is playing a team-high 31.9 minutes per contest.
• Dan Oladapo is shooting a team-best 18-of-23 (.783) from the field overall and is now shooting 57.1 percent (291-of-510) from the field for his career.
• John Hugley has gotten to the free throw line 43 times in the past five games and now leads the ACC in free throws per game (7.0 ftpg.). He ranks second with 4.8 free throws made per game, while shooting 68.6 percent (48-of-70) from the charity stripe.
• Pitt is averaging 26.8 points in the paint and 14.4 points from the foul line per game. Interior scoring and foul shots have accounted for 68.1 percent (412-of-605) of the team's points this season.
• Pitt has been outscored 246-123 from three-point range on the season. Pitt's top two returning three-point threats Nike Sibande (injury) and Ithiel Horton (suspension) have not played a game this season. Onyebuchi Ezeakudo (7-of-14, .500) is the lone Panther shooting over 35.0 percent from three-point range.
• Pitt has more made free throws (144) than its opponents have attempted (142) on the season. The Panthers are averaging 22.5 free throw attempts per game and have outscored the opposition by 46 points from the free throw line.
• Pitt's sophomore class - Noah Collier, John Hugley, William Jeffress and Femi Odukale - combines to average 34.9 points and 19.4 rebounds per game for the Panthers. Jeffress (31.9 mpg.), Odukale (29.6) and Hugley (29.2 mpg.) are three of the top four Panthers in minutes played per game and have combined for make 27 starts.
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Panther Spotlights
• John Hugley is averaging 13.8 points and 10.0 rebounds in four contests against Power 5 opponents. He had a season-best 25 points and 14 rebounds in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge against Minnesota.
• Femi Odukale has made seven free throws in three of the past five games and is 26-of-33 (.788) from the free throw line in that stretch. He was 12-of-27 (.444) from the line in the first four games of the season.

Panthers Head to Madison Square Garden to Play St. John’s in the Gotham Classic

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Players Mentioned

Jamarius Burton

Justin Champagnie

Noah Collier

Onyebuchi Ezeakudo

Ithiel Horton

John Hugley IV

William Jeffress

Femi Odukale

Dan Oladapo

Nike Sibande

University of Pittsburgh Athletics