Nov. 27, 1998
By Jim O’Connell
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Since he’s been at Pittsburgh, Vonteego Cummings has always had to listen to the what-ifs because of a team injury listthat seemed to never end.
From knee injuries to broken fingers to an infected bite wound at the teethof a teammate, there were always reasons why the Panthers faltered.
So far this season, the injuries have stayed away and the big wins have comeearly.
On Friday, Cummings, a senior guard, had 20 points and seven assists as thePanthers shocked No. 4 Kentucky 68-54 in the semifinals of the Puerto RicoShootout, ending the defending national champions’ 17-game winning streak.
The Panthers (6-0) will play the winner of the game between No. 5 Marylandand No. 10 UCLA in Saturday night’s championship game.
“Beating the defending national champions says a lot about your team,”Cummings said.
The win was the second in two days over a ranked team for the Panthers, whobeat No. 13 Xavier 94-76 in the opening round.
Pittsburgh coach Ralph Willard was a former assistant at Kentucky under RickPitino.
“Obviously beating two ranked teams in two days means a lot to your programbut it means more to me for these kids who have been through so much,” hesaid.
The game was another struggle from the outside for Kentucky (4-1). TheWildcats followed a 1-for-12 effort from 3-point range in their opening winover Colorado with a 2-for-22 performance from beyond the arc againstPittsburgh.
“We missed about 40 open shots,” Kentucky forward Scott Padgett said. “Wescored at will inside but didn’t get anything outside.”
Cummings said that was Pitt’s game plan.
“We wanted them to take 3s,” he said. “We had scouting reports that saidthey weren’t shooting that well.”
Padgett agreed.
“The way we were shooting today I would have wanted us to shoot, too,” hesaid.
Pittsburgh took the lead for good with 9:45 to play on a basket by JeremyHolmes.
Holmes’ field goal started a 9-2 run that made it 55-48 with 7:36 left. Abasket by Padgett got the Wildcats within five, but Cummings beat Kentucky downcourt for a layup, then tipped in his own miss to cap a 6-0 run that made it61-50 with 3:49 left.
With 600 Kentucky fans in the 2,500-seat Guerra Sports Complex at AmericanUniversity of Puerto Rico, the comeback they thought would happen didn’t.
“They had their run and then we couldn’t come up with one of our own,”Padgett said.
Kentucky managed only four points over the final 3 1/2 minutes as Pittsburgh’sdefense contested every 3-point attempt and stayed tough inside against thebigger and deeper Wildcats.
“They were too athletic and we weren’t ready for this game,” Kentuckycoach Tubby Smith said. “We had a couple of chances if we just could have hita shot or made a play we could have taken control of the tempo but we justcouldn’t do it.”
The Panthers were 9-for-17 on 3s, with freshman Fred Primus going 3-for-5for his nine points.
Isaac Hawkins added 10 points and 10 rebounds for Pittsburgh.
Michael Bradley had 16 points for Kentucky, which last lost Feb. 14 toMississippi, while Heshimu Evans had 13 and Wayne Turner 11.
“We’ve had early losses the last three years,” Padgett said. “Just likewe did then, we have to learn from them.”
Pittsburgh led 31-25 at halftime and Kentucky never took the lead, tying thescore twice, the last time at 46-46 before Pitt went on the decisive run thatwas capped on another layup by Cummings after he beat Kentucky down the court.
