GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Jamarius Burton scored 21 points, Federiko Federiko added 19 and Pittsburgh ousted Georgia Tech 89-81 in the second round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday.
The Panthers play fourth-seeded and No. 21-ranked Duke in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Burton was 10-of-15 shooting and added eight assists. Federiko made all seven of his shots and grabbed eight rebounds. All the Pitt starters were in double figures. Greg Elliott hit all four of his 3-point attempts and scored 16 points, Blake Hinson added 12 points and nine rebounds and Nelly Cummings had 11 points. The fifth-seeded Panthers (22-10) shot 56% and made 20 of 25 free throws.
Ja'von Franklin had 19 points and 15 rebounds to lead the 13th-seeded Yellow Jackets (15-18). Deebo Coleman added 17 points, hitting four 3-pointers, and had nine rebounds. Miles Kelly and Kyle Sturdivant, the latter with eight assists, scored 16 points each.
Georgia Tech was within four points with 2:20 left but Burton converted a three-point play and after a Sturdivant bucket, Burton found Hinson for a 3-pointer and an eight-point lead with 41 seconds remaining. Sturdivant added two free throws and a jumper to cut the deficit to four. Four free throws by Elliott finished the scoring.
Trailing by 13 at halftime, Georgia Tech went on a 10-2 run to open the second half when Pitt started with three straight turnovers. The Yellow Jackets added a 9-0 run that included back-to-back dunks by Franklin to go up by two. Burton's bucket with 11 minutes left put the Panthers up for good.
Elliott hit a 3-pointer around four minutes into the game and the Panthers led the remainder of the half on their way to a 44-31 lead. Federiko, the one Pitt starter who doesn't average double figures, had 13 points in the first half and Burton scored 10.
Notes – Second Round Game 2
- Pitt (22-10) advances to Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal game versus No. 4 seed Duke (23-8). The Blue Devils took the regular-season meeting 77-69 when the teams met at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 11.
- Wednesday’s outcome gave the Panthers a season sweep of their three meetings versus the Yellow Jackets in 2022-23. Pitt won both regular-season meetings. Pitt is now 2-0 versus Georgia Tech in all-time New York Life ACC Tournament meetings.
- Pitt improved to 7-9 in ACC Tournament games and squared its tourney record in Greensboro to 4-4. The Panthers are 3-4 all-time in tournament second-round games.
- Georgia Tech slipped to 29-39 all-time in the ACC Tournament and to 12-18 in Greensboro. The Yellow Jackets are 1-2 in the second round.
- In addition to leading Pitt with 21 points on Wednesday, Jamarius Burton handed out eight assists. That matches the Pitt ACC Tournament single-game record first set by Xavier Johnson against Wake Forest in 2020.
- As a team, Pitt set school ACC Tournament records for field-goal percent (31-55, .564) and points (89) in an ACC Tournament game. It also tied its marks for 3-point accuracy (.438) and free-throw percentage (.800). The Panthers’ previous record for field goal percentage was .523 (34-for-65) versus Wake Forest in the 2020 first round. The Panther’s previous record for scoring was 84 in a second-round win over the Demon Deacons in 2014.
- Pitt’s Federiko Federiko, a freshman from Helsinki, Finland, scored 19 points – his career-high against ACC competition. In so doing, he became the second Scandinavian player to establish a personal-best in ACC play on Wednesday afternoon. He joined Wake Forest’s Bobi Klintman of Malmo, Sweden, who had 17 in the Demon Deacons’ victory over Syracuse.
- The Panthers advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2016.
- With 19 points and 15 rebounds, Ja’Von Franklin led Georgia Tech in both categories and recorded his sixth double-double in the last eight games.
- With his 19 points and 15 boards, Franklin became only the third Yellow Jacket in the past 13 years to reach both thresholds in a game. He joined Moses Wright (31 and 16 vs. Syracuse on Feb. 27, 2021 and 31 and 19 vs. Georgia State on Nov. 25, 2020) and Charles Mitchell (20 and 17 at Pitt on Jan. 6, 2016).
- The No. 5 seed is 6-1 all-time versus the No. 12 seed in ACC Tournament second-round games.