Pitt Basketball: Ashton Gibbs Falls To St. John's, 60-59
by CardiacHill on Feb 19, 2026 3:28 PM EST
in Pitt Basketball
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PrintWell, Ashton Gibbs finally did something to prove he wasn't Superman. Today, despite playing a great game, he lost to St. John's on the road in a tough loss.
Gibbs put up a career-high 26 points, but in the end, it simply wasn't enough to stop an entire team.
The junior shooting guard almost had enough, though. He repeatedly drained three-pointers (he had six to St. John's three) and showed Panther fans that he's ready to make a deep run in the NCAAs. Gibbs hit 57% of his shots from the field and was the game's leading scorer. The Red Storm had no answer for him and looked helpless in trying to shut him down.
But leading by one late in the game, Gibbs learned that one-on-five is a tough gig. He ultimately couldn't prevent the Red Storm's Dwight Hardy from scoring on a last-second layup. Covering five people at once proved too difficult and Hardy took advantage.
Gibbs played well, but will need to do much better to win in the Big East. Shooting nearly 60% from the field is all well and good, but there's no reason at all to not make every single shot. Gibbs knows what it takes to win in the conference and I expect we'll see a much better effort from him the next time around.
It's back to the drawing board for Ashton and on Thursday, he'll go up against West Virginia.
Maybe he'll get some help this time around.
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Dude
Your sarcasm is unneccessary. Gibbs made the shots,but his teamates found him and set good screens for him. Woodall also stepped up and made some key shots towards the end. Bottom line is you win and lose as a team. I do think wanamaker needs to take more shots, but st. Johns is a good defensive team. Hardy stepped out of bounds anyways. Refs were ridiculous the second half with foul calls too. I just think as the moderator of the board you should be a lot less cynical with game recaps. You win and lose as a team and the other players may not have shot as well as Gibbs but still played hard and made some clutch plays and played good defense. Put some more thought into it next time.
by PhilsForever on Feb 20, 2026 3:17 PM EST via mobile reply actions
I think you're a little off base
Seriously, this blog is one of the least critical ones of Pitt players out there. Just because I call out the team for a horrible (and I do mean, horrible) offensive performance doesn’t mean I don’t recognize they’re still a good team. And just as some players made key plays doesn’t mean they’re past criticism. Woodall hit a huge three-pointer, but that doesn’t mean I can’t say he had a bad game when he shot 2-8 from the field.
Pitt played well defensively, but the fact is that they needed more offense. Gibbs literally scored almost half of their points, so to say he needed more help from the team was an understatement. That’s why I wrote the post that way - to highlight how good he was rather than merely taking shots at other players.
Sometimes I think we (and I don’t think you’re the only one) blur the lines between a blog and an actual news site. This site isn’t here to merely recap games and give straight facts - it’s a place to vent opinions…including cynical ones. And my opinion is that the team stunk offensively yesterday. That doesn’t mean they’re no good and it certainly doesn’t mean that other individual players did nothing else right. It means that everyone other than Gibbs could have done more on the offensive end.
Pitt’s players have by and large been incredible this year. But yesterday was an off day for just about everyone, so I added a little humor to it.
by CardiacHill on Feb 20, 2026 5:01 PM EST up reply actions
Sorry
I read your recap after watching the game on dvr and was a bit sore about pitt losing a game they should not have lost. Took it out on your post and I apologize. I love wanamaker’s vision but the guy can score. He needs to shoot the ball more. I think if he had taken more shots Pitt would have won that game. Also, I know he was never a great 3 point shooter, but what has happened to Gilbert brown’s 3 point shot? It looks pathetic right now. I still think Pitt deserves a no 1 seed if they can win out the rest of the way regardless how they do in the big east tourney.
by PhilsForever on Feb 20, 2026 7:45 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
No worries
And definitely no need for an apology. I generally respond to criticism (I’ll either say you’re spot on, or if I think you’re off, I’ll say as such), but that doesn’t mean it’s not okay. No one is going to agree with everything I say and I’d rather hear differing opinions than not.
Pitt has plenty of good players and having most of them play below expectations offensively was a bit of an anomaly.
I think Pitt is in good shape for a #1 seed as well if they can win the regular season title and not collapse over these last few games. If they end up with five losses, but win the Big East, that might get the job done. We’ll see.
by CardiacHill on Feb 20, 2026 10:18 PM EST up reply actions
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