The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | February 6, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 116
protesters The Challenger aim to drive Taking on Peduto, Welch promises “people’s uber out campaign,” more equitable city
Reverend John Welch spoke to a crowd of friends and supporters on the North Side Saturday John Hamilton VISUAL EDITOR
Stephen Caruso
Contributing Editor Florence Turner, 57, of Pittsburgh’s Manchester neighborhood, knows her candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh, John C. Welch, has a tough fight ahead of him. But like Marvin Gaye’s dedicated lover in “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” which played softly in the background of the Pittsburgh Project hall Turner sat in, she and the dozens-strong crowd around her are determined that no obstacle will stop Welch’s call for a campaign that represents every Pittsburgher — one Welch has named a “people’s campaign.” “He brings something different to the campaign, something people want to hear,” Turner said.
Welch, who is an activist and has been dean of students at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary since 2007, has run his two-week-old campaign on a promise to improve the city for everyone — proclaiming early in his speech that “John Welch is social justice and social justice is John Welch.” To win city hall, Welch will need to unseat incumbent Bill Peduto, a three-term city councilman and mayor since 2013, in the Democratic primary May 16, while running his first campaign for an elected office. The North Side rally, held at the Pittsburgh Project — a Christian nonprofit community development organization — was the second of his campaign. The first kickoff event was held two weeks earlier in Welch’s native Homewood. And while Welch still offered no specific policy
proposals, he enthralled the crowd with his promise for Pittsburgh government based in equality, not access. “We’re sick and tired of the status quo, we’re sick and tired of being excluded from the table and sick and tired of being left out of the group,” Welch said to the crowd. Turner, chatting with her friends a few seats from the front, knows Welch personally. She said she is supporting him because “what you see is what you get,” specifically pointing to his “intellect” as a defining trait. Crossing the Allegheny from East Liberty to see Welch was Ashley Ashley, 27, who works at the seminary. As a seminary employee, she trusts Welch’s judgment and says he’s been “among the See Welch on page 4
Stephen Caruso
Contributing Editor Taking the trip from Denny Park, off Liberty Avenue, to Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center on Smallman Street in the Strip District would take one minute in an Uber. But about 30 Pittsburghers marched the same route for a half hour Saturday afternoon to protest a swathe of issues they had with the ride-sharing company — its stance on immigration, worker’s rights and its tight relationship with Pittsburgh’s city government. Uber’s Pittsburgh based detractors pointed to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s cooperation with President Donald Trump’s administration, lack of benefits for drivers and emails that show secretive deal-making between the city and the corporation as reasons for their anger. Bracing against a cold wind, Chandana Cherukupalli, a community organizer with Pittsburghers for Public Transit, made a point to not limit the issues at stake in the protest. “This is not just about Uber, this is not just about [Trump], this is about oppression,” Cherukupalli said. Uber came under fire from progressives last weekend for allegedly breaking a taxi driver’s strike against the president’s executive order to ban refugees from entering the United States. Trump’s executive order resulted in federal immigration officials detaining U.S. legal residents at airports who were still citizens of one of seven restricted countries. The multi-billion-dollar company dropped See Uber on page 4
pittnews.com
February 6, 2017
2
News
Oakland Crime Map See online
WOLF REQUESTS $10 MILLION TO FIGHT OPIOID EPIDEMIC James Evan Bowen-Gaddy Assistant News Editor
Gov. Tom Wolf is taking on Pennsylvania’s opioid epidemic with a budget proposal, a testament to the crisis’ severity in the face of a looming $3 billion budget deficit. As part of the proposed 2017-2018 Pennsylvania state budget, Wolf announced last Tuesday that he will request $10 million to equip first responders and law enforcement officers with Naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdose victims. “As this terrible disease continues to devastate our families and communities, we must ensure the widespread access of Naloxone,” said Wolf in his administration’s press release. The Wolf administration said the $10 million will be made available through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which coordinates and financially supports multiple justicerelated programs in Pennsylvania. The funds will be distributed across the state to law enforcement offices. J.J. Abbott, the press secretary for the Wolf administration, could not be reached in time for publication. This portion of the budget proposal comes as a part of a larger battle against the Pennsylvania opioid epidemic, which contributed to a recorded 2,742 overdoses in 2014. In that same year, Tom Corbett began fighting the epidemic, when he signed Senate Bill 1164, allowing first responders including law enforcement, firefighters and EMS to administer Naloxone to patients experiencing opioid overdose. The $10 million proposal is supposed to expand access to Naloxone by provid-
pittnews.com
ing law enforcement with extra funds to purchase the expensive antidote, which has risen from under $1 to over $15 a dose in the past 10 years. Opioids are a class of drugs that include substances such as heroin, morphine and opium. Naloxone is not an “overdose reversal” drug, as it’s often called, but works by stopping opioids from bonding to the overdose victim’s opioid receptors, allowing the victim to breathe normally. According to Wolf ’s press release, Naloxone reversed more than 2,320 opioid overdoses between November 2014 and now, due to the use of Naloxone by law enforcement and first responders. Through Naloxone-focused policy, Wolf has been fighting against the epidemic for the past few years. In 2015, Wolf signed a standing order to ensure that all Pennsylvania residents would have access to a Naloxone prescription through any pharmacy. Wolf will outline the Naloxone portion of the proposal and the rest of the 2017-2018 budget in further detail Tuesday during the annual budget address. According to Abbott, the budget deficit could rise to as high as $3 billion next year. Efforts to thin that deficit by the Wolf administration include closing SCI Pittsburgh. It’s unclear how this $10 million proposal will affect the deficit, but Wolf maintains that it is a necessary step towards helping those affected by opioid addiction. “Expanding access to Naloxone is crucial in continuing our fight against the opioid epidemic,” Wolf said in the press release.
The Pitt News
Editor-in-Chief ELIZABETH LEPRO
Managing Editor LAUREN ROSENBLATT
editor@pittnews.com
manager@pittnews.com
News Editor ASHWINI SIVAGANESH
Opinions Editor AMBER MONTGOMERY
newsdesk.tpn@gmail.com
tpnopinions@pittnews.com
Sports Editor STEVE ROTSTEIN
Culture Editor EMILY BRINDLEY
tpnsports@gmail.com
aeeditors@gmail.com
Visual Editor JOHN HAMILTON
Layout Editor JORDAN MONDELL
pittnewsphoto@gmail.com
tpnlayout@gmail.com
Online Editor MATT CHOI
Copy Chief SIERRA SMITH
tpnonline@gmail.com
tpncopydesk@gmail.com
Amanda Reed | Assistant News Editor Alexandria Stryker | Assistant Copy James Evan Bowen-Gaddy | Assistant News Editor Copy Staff Henry Glitz | Assistant Opinions Editor Maria Castello Alexa Marzina Bayard Miller | Assistant Sports Editor Matthew Maelli Amanda Sobczak Meghan Sunners | Assistant Visual Editor Bridget Montgomery Mia DiFelice Michelle Reagle Corey Foreman Emily Hower | Assistant Layout Editor Rachael Crabb Kelsey Hunter Matt Moret | Online Engagement Editor Kim Rooney Kyleen Pickering
Editorial Policies
Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to letters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left. The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and
student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is pub lished Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer. Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the editors, may be referred to the Community Relations Com mittee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260. The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law. The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University staff, fac ulty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and edito rial offices of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.
Business Manager CALVIN REIF
advertising@pittnews.com
Sales Manager SEAN HENNESSY
Inside Sales Manager MARISSA ALTEMUS
Marketing Manager LARA PETORAK
Digital Manager ISAAC PROCH
Graphic Designers Taylor Trgovac Madison McClure
Marketing Assistant Katie Bozzo
February 6, 2017
Rielly Galvin Sydney Mengel
Production Manager MAYA PUSKARIC Account Executives
Robert Capone Matty Houck David Barone Jill Baldauf
Inside Sales Executive Scott Elias Arianna Taddei Izzy Krempa
Marty Waters Julianne Rohac Antonio Blundo University Account Executive Isabel Scrabis David Mo Barone
3
Welch pg. 1 people.” She also believes Welch brings a “fresh voice and fresh perspective,” and that his status as a reverend shows altruistic motives for a political run. “People want to know he cares about people,” Ashley said. The people proved responsive to Welch and his allies throughout the rally, shouting encouragements such as “that’s right” or “preach,” while a few speakers involved the crowd with call-andresponse routines, often ending in chants of the candidate’s name. Opening the event, after a brief instrumental performance by seminary student Lee Gatewood, was Reverend Rodney Lyde of Baptist Temple Church in Homewood. After taking to the podium, Lyde welcomed everyone from black nationalists to baby boomers, fast food workers to secular humanists, to Welsh’s “outside the box” campaign. “This [campaign] is not about developing property only, this is about developing people in this city,” Lyde said. While Peduto was never named, Welch and fellow Pittsburgh reverends criticized the sitting mayor for leaving some Pittsburghers behind in the city’s rebound from rusty steel town to millennial mecca. Despite the city’s status as a testing ground for autonomous vehicles and a magnet for young people, Pittsburgh also has one of the highest food insecurity rates for a mid-sized American city, and some black neighborhoods have five-year infant mortality rates rivaling developing countries. Decrying these inequalities, Reverend Richard Freeman of Resurrection Baptist Church in Braddock advocated for a new egalitarian mindset in city government. “Everyone must be recipient of the wellspring of prosperity, not just the influential and not just the chosen,” Freeman said. Welch also seemingly commented on the cozy
pittnews.com
relations between Pittsburgh’s mayor office and Uber. Peduto and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick are known to have a close relationship, as detailed in a report by PennLive in December 2016. Peduto even offered Uber access to the Pittsburgh’s busways as part of a plan to attract federal grants. “I don’t need to have the cellphone number of a CEO on speed dial, unless I’m willing to tell him or her, ‘Your technology is great but it will only advance the common good if it does not replace human workers,’” Welch said. “People need jobs, and quite frankly I’d rather see a person behind the wheel of a car actually driving and not sitting there making sure nothing happens.” Welch then ended his 20-minute speech by speaking of his hope to continue community policing reforms in Pittsburgh. “Until you’ve walked around any city in this country in black skin, you have no idea what we go through,” Welch said, referencing the cases of Jordan Miles and Leon Ford, Jr., both black men subjected to police brutality. Welch, who has served the city as chief Pittsburgh police chaplain since 2008, also expressed his appreciation for the duties of police officers. On lead, Welch made another veiled reference to the mayor, commenting that Pittsburgh has had rising lead levels for 12 years, during which Welch said the city government has taken no action. “You can slice that up however you want, one mayoral elected term and two city councils, I’m just saying,” Welsh said to chuckles from the crowd. Peduto served three terms as a city councilman before becoming mayor. The mayor announced Friday he was seeking advice on how to restructure the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority because of “systemic problems,” though Welch did not comment on the recent push for reform. The challenger wrapped the speech with his final plea for fair policies, playing off Pittsburgh’s title as a “most livable city.” “Let’s make Pittsburgh the most equitable city and the most livable for all,” Welch said.
Uber, pg. 1 surge pricing — increasing trip fares when many people are making ride requests at the same time — near New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport last Saturday as protests raged against the president’s order. The move led protesters to believe Uber was trying to profit from the work stoppage. Kalanick withdrew from the president’s council Feb. 2, while Uber defended dropping surge pricing as trying to help “people to be able to leave JFK at normal prices” in a statement. It was too late, however, to stop #deleteUber protests from popping up across the country, including the one on Saturday in Pittsburgh. Christina Rostas, a 28-year-old North Side resident, showed up Saturday in solidarity with Uber’s immigrant drivers. “It’s really sad Uber can’t come out and support their own workers,” Rostas said. As for the committee, Rostas, said Kalanick shouldn’t have considered Trump’s offer given his campaign’s rhetoric against immigrants, Muslims and other marginalized groups. As protesters gathered outside JFK, Dulles and other American airports during the early afternoon on Jan. 28, Kalanick posted on Facebook opposition to Trump’s executive order. He also offered to compensate Uber drivers trapped overseas by the order “pro bono” for lost time. Since then, Uber also announced a $3 million legal defense fund for drivers. Not all the criticism came from last weekend’s controversies. Speaking before the march, Helen Gerhardt, who runs a social justice blog and sits on the city’s Commission for Human Relations, criticized Uber for refusing to share data with the city of Pittsburgh on their autonomous vehicles safety record, as well as for ignoring “basic standard” for its drivers. Gerhardt’s message of economic justice joined with Rostas’ concerns for immigrant’s rights to drive the march through the biting wind.
February 6, 2017
Uber drivers currently receive no insurance or retirement options. The company is also suing the city of Seattle to stop a new law that grants Uber and Lyft drivers collective bargaining rights. While chanting “Pittsburgh ride-share, make it union, make it fair,” and “Hey Travis [Kalanick], you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side,” the marchers snaked through the Strip District. As they reached the ride-share companies building on Smallman — a few curious onlookers recording the protest with their phones — three demonstrators hung a white banner from the 31st Street Bridge. Painted in blue and green, it read “Support workers + immigrants, delete Uber from PGH.” While the causes of worker’s and immigrant’s rights appeared on placards and in the protest’s refrain, Gerhardt and some other attendees also worried that Uber had a unseemly influence on Pittsburgh’s own city government. Citing the reports of the close relationship between Pittsburgh’s mayor and Uber’s CEO, Tom Conroy, a Port Authority bus driver and member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, thought Peduto needed to quit “kowtowing” to Uber and show more transparency in his decision making. In December 2016, PennLive reported that Peduto, as part of the city’s application for a competitive $50 million federal grant for infrastructure improvements, offered Uber access to the city’s busways in return for a $25 million investment in Pittsburgh’s infrastructure. “These backroom deals are not the kind of deals a progressive city should make,” Conroy said. The public-private partnerships that Peduto has championed concern Gerhardt. She said such deals are counter to Peduto’s 2013 campaign, in which he promised to clean up city politics. Taking the situation as a whole, Gerhardt sees their protest as a way of holding the government accountable — a protest that might carry over to the ballot box if their demands aren’t met. “If you want to be elected [mayor] again, you have to be responsive to our needs,” she said.
4
pittnews.com
February 6, 2017
5
Opinions column
STALLINGSʼ SACKING SOON TO COME Matthew Sable For The Pitt News
When Kevin Stallings was first considered for the position of Pitt’s new men’s basketball head coach, many Pitt fans responded with concern and disapproval. Still, the fan base gave him a chance. Now, a year later and after eight losses in a row — most recently to Duke on Saturday — it’s clear the athletic department made a mistake in in hiring Stallings. Stallings took over after former head coach Jamie Dixon left for Texas Christian University following the 2015-16 season. The new head coach inherited an experienced group of players, only to transform Pitt into the worst team in the ACC in his first season. Considering the athletic department’s current tumultuous situation as it searches for a new athletic director, it might not be an option to fire Stallings just yet — but he should be wary of the looming possibility. Dixon was the most successful coach in Pitt men’s basketball history and the only one to guide the Panthers to the No. 1 ranking in the country. The team went through a bit of a down period in his final few seasons, but they still made the NCAA Tournament three out of the last four years and went 90-46 during that span. In his 13 years at Pitt, the Panthers went 328-123. Any coach would have a difficult time living up to his reputation. But that doesn’t leave Stallings without blame. He was given a group capable of winning right away with the goal of building a team that could return to
pittnews.com
peak Dixon-era levels of success. Yet, under Stallings, Pitt is a non-competitive team with a miniscule chance of making the NCAA tournament. Before Stallings became the head coach at Pitt, he was the head coach at Vanderbilt University for 17 years, from 1999 to 2016. During his time in Nashville, he experienced numerous off-the-
court troubles that raised questions about his judgement and ability to build relationships with his players. The coach blocked Sheldon Jeter — then a first-year forward at Vanderbilt — from transferring to Pitt in 2013 in an unusual move, as Pitt was not on Vanderbilt’s schedule in the next or any upcoming years. And after a Vanderbilt player’s display of poor sportsmanship, Stallings threatened him during the postgame handshake in 2015, screaming at him, “I’ll f***ing kill you.” Stallings clearly lets his personal feelings get
fensive end to the level of Ralph Willard, former Pitt coach from 1994-1999. So far Stallings has failed to keep Pitt basketball thriving. Some fans are pointing to the loss of leadership from former four-year starting point guard James Robinson as the reason for this decline. But Robinson is not the sole difference between this year and last, and likewise not the only factor that contributed to Pitt’s competitiveness in the ACC. For Pitt to have fallen to the bottom in the conference so abruptly, there must be another source contributing to Pitt’s decline — and I’m looking right at Stallings. A team’s failure cannot be attributed entirely to a head coach, but just as a captain goes down with his ship and a manager apologizes for an employee’s mistakes, it’s still the coach’s role to take responsibility for his team’s shortcomings. At his current pace, Stallings’ tenure could result in the shortest term of any basketball coach at Pitt since 1910 — and maybe it should. Pitt is still in the process of hiring a new athletic director, one who will have to deal with a John Hamilton VISUAL EDITOR Stallings problem they didn’t create. petitive football and basketball team. If it does not live The new AD might have less interest in up to the ACC’s expectations for view- waiting for Stallings to improve than ership, there’s a chance Pitt could be the one who hired him, possibly preferleft out of the next round of expansions ring instead to bring in a new coach to which could cause Pitt Athletics to lose lead the program. After the athletic director position is millions of dollars. Around college basketball, Stallings filled, we should turn our attention to is known as one of the best offensive the future of Pitt basketball. Matt is TPN columnist who writes coaches in the game, but he has not been able to show fans why he obtained primarily about sports. Write to Matt at mas537@pitt.edu. that reputation. Pitt has shown minimal improvement on the offensive end of the court and has regressed on the dein the way of making the best decision for his team and for his players, issues that upset Pitt fans brought up months ago when some of them objected to the Stallings hire. Pitt was invited to be part of the ACC in 2013 because it brought in a new television market — the 24th largest in the country — as well as a com-
February 6, 2017
6
from the editorial board
Yiannopoulos isn’t worth the drama Editor’s note: The Pitt News’ editorial board had an intense discussion about the effects of incendiary rhetoric, the intent of civil disobedience and the line between free and hate speech. Ultimately, the board was divided on many of these topics — and quick to admit that our positions as college students mean we feel more optimistic about the potential for change through democratic measures than others. Ultimately, given Pitt’s own experience with Yiannopoulos, this is what the board came away with. As always, we welcome responses. Pitt is far from unfamiliar with Milo Yiannopoulos, the British journalist, public speaker and editor at Breitbart News. Yiannopoulos visited Pitt in March 2016, where the support he received from the conservatives who hosted him on campus was easily overshadowed by liberal students’ criticism. Yet, Yiannopoulos’ visit to the University of California, Berkeley, last week caused a much more aggressive reaction. Campus police was forced to cancel the event due to safety concerns after over 100 protesters took to campus in opposition to Yiannopoulos’ speech Wednesday night — caus-
ing over $100,000 in damages that resulted from throwing rocks and fireworks at police, starting fires and bashing university windows. No one’s doubting that Yiannopoulos is a controversial figure, or even a downright bigot, but what all this fighting, arguing and trash can burning ignores is the question of why we’re giving attention to Yiannopoulos in the first place. Like any self-righteous bully looking for attention, we should stop giving him acknowledgement and validity. We recognize this isn’t an easy task, especially if you’re a person or group who is a target of Yiannopoulos’ hateful comments — among his more controversial comments were attacks on a West Virginia University professor for his sexuality and the harassment of Saturday Night Live’s Leslie Jones. Reacting with passionate protesting is the logical response to ensuring your voice is heard, but at the same time, the visceral response Yiannopoulos elicits is the very same thing that contributes to his growing recognition. While we can’t stop him from saying whatever he wants, the more impactful thing we could do is ask ourselves why we are listening.
Yiannopoulos has little formal education after dropping out of both the University of Manchester and Wolfson College, Cambridge, and he’s gained his fame not through work or a commitment to journalism but through numerous internet controversies. He offers little to no qualifications or life experiences that would warrant his opinion on such issues as race, gender equity or any of the various other social and cultural topics he engages with daily. His only virtue is being hostile and causing a ruckus — so when he’s invited to speak at universities, chaos is the only consistent result. With so little to offer, we shouldn’t be debating whether or not he should be allowed to speak, but why anyone would want to invite him at all. It can be undoubtedly frustrating for conservative students on college campuses to make their voices heard and find role models to validate their ideologies — and there’s nothing wrong with young conservatives trying to do just that — but that’s not what Yiannopoulos is nor is it why people bring him to town. He’s commonly heralded as a validation of the right to free speech, but why fight so hard for speech that isn’t
constructive or knowledgeable? Patrick Young, a strategic campaigner at United Steelworkers, tagged Pitt College Republicans in a post on Facebook Sunday in reaction to the protests at UC Berkeley. In it, he said that if the club invited Yiannopoulos back to Pitt, he could ensure the events from California would look like “a candlelight vigil” in comparison. Young’s response is aggressive and not one shared by the entire University community at Pitt, but it does illustrate the ability of Yiannopoulos to elicit negative responses from the liberal community rather than provide any substantial intellectual or political contributions. Inviting him to speak at a college is an action just as incendiary as actually lightning a trash can fire in protest of him. None of it is doing anyone any good, other than giving Yiannopoulos a bigger platform from which to preach his baseless facts and hateful speech. We’re certain Yiannopoulos isn’t willing to go away, but let’s make the choice on both sides of the aisle to say goodbye — and good riddance — to him.
The Pitt News SuDoku 2/6/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
pittnews.com
February 6, 2017
7
Sports
Gymnastics, Track & Field, Tennis, and Recruiting Updates See online
PANTHERS FALL PREY TO DEACONS, 57-48 Mackenzie Rodrigues Staff Writer
The Panthers and the Demon Deacons each claimed the lead twice Sunday, but when the Panthers failed to put a stop to the Deacons’ rampant scoring, the game ended with a familiar outcome for the men’s and women’s basketball teams: a Panther loss. The Pitt women’s basketball team (1211, 3-7 ACC) suffered its fourth consecutive loss Sunday afternoon after falling to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (14-9, 5-5 ACC). At the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Wake Forest won the opening tip-off and scored the first points of the game with a layup from senior forward Milan Quinn and a jumper from sophomore forward
Elisa Penna. Pitt first-year guard Alayna Gribble answered with one of her signature 3-pointers, decreasing the deficit to one point, 4-3. After a nearly five minute scoring drought, Pitt first-year Jasmine Whitney sank both of her foul shots, bringing the Panthers within four and making the score 11-7. A trip to the free throw line for Quinn gave Wake Forest one more point, but Pitt junior guard Aysia Bugg nailed both of her foul shots to score her first points of the game. After 10 minutes of play, the quarter ended with a Demon Deacon lead of 14-9. Returning from a quarter with seven team turnovers, Gribble tried to start the second quarter off strong with a triple, but her shot was off-target. Pitt sophomore forward Brenna Wise scored the first points of
PANTHERS PINNED BY NO. 8 NC STATE, 23-15
the quarter with two successful free throws to make the score 14-11. Most of Pitt’s points had so far resulted from foul shots, with only five points coming from the field. Coming back into the game already with two fouls against her, Bradley nailed a three for her first basket of the day. Wise’s first field goal of the game tied the score at 16 apiece. The Panthers captured the lead for the first time of the afternoon with another jumper from Wise. The Deacons managed to tie it once again on a jumper, but the deadlock broke with Bradley’s second three of the quarter making the score 21-18. After the Demon Deacons scored on a jumper, Wise added to the Panther lead with a layup. But a midrange shot from Sophomore Brenna Wise scored 16 points as the Panthers lost to Wake See Basketball on page 9 Forest Sunday afternoon. Jordan Mondell CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Luke Cannon
For The Pitt News
The No. 25 Pitt wrestling team received a boost from the return of its best wrestler Friday night, but it wasn’t enough to hold off a late comeback from the No. 8 North Carolina State Wolfpack. Pitt junior Dom Forys — the No. 8 133-pounder in the nation — returned against the Wolfpack after missing the Panthers’ past two weekends of competition with an injury, according to Pitt officials. Forys rolled to a 15-4 major decision, helping stake Pitt (8-5 overall, 0-3 ACC) to an early lead in the dual meet. But NC State (11-1 overall, 4-0 ACC) finished strong, winning the final three matches to clinch a 23-15 victory in Raleigh, North Carolina. “The team wrestled with a lot of emotion tonight,” Pitt co-head coach Matt Kocher said Friday in a press release. “We believed we could win and when you believe you can win, you care deeply. Everyone was engaged in all of the matches — it was awesome to see.” Dom Forys, pictured wrestling against Davidson, won in his first match back Rather than the typical meet start of 125 from an injury Saturday. John Hamilton VISUAL EDITOR
pittnews.com
February 6, 2017
pounds, the opening match of the night featured the heavyweights. Pitt’s No. 19 Ryan Solomon took on No. 21 Mike Kosoy in a slow and methodical battle that lasted into overtime. The only points scored in regulation came from escapes, but Solomon secured a takedown late in the second tiebreaker period to win the match 5-2 and give the Panthers a 3-0 lead. At 125 pounds, the Wolfpack’s Sean Fausz defeated Pitt sophomore LJ Bentley to tie the meet. Fausz controlled the first two periods with three takedowns while Bentley only scored off escapes. Bentley scored his first takedown in the third, but Fausz held on to win the match, 10-5. In the third match, Forys made his victorious return, dominating No. 14 Jamal Morris of NC State. Forys jumped ahead early with a takedown and back points, then tacked on four more takedowns in the third period to wrap up the 15-4 major decision and give the Panthers a 7-3 advantage. The Wolfpack’s highest-ranked wrestler, See Wrestling on page 9
8
Basketball, pg. 8
Wrestling, pg. 8 No. 2 141-pounder Kevin Jack, then easily defeated Pitt redshirt junior Nick Zanetta by a 19-6 major decision. Jack had two takedowns in the first period and then another three in the second. Zanetta mainly scored off escapes, but had one takedown in the third period. With the meet tied 7-7, Panthers senior Mike Racciato took the mat at 149 pounds against NC State’s Beau Donahue. The match was fairly even through the first two periods, with both wrestlers scoring a takedown and multiple escapes. In the third period, Racciato pounced on a takedown and pinned Donahue at the 6:38 mark to tally six points for Pitt, giving the Panthers a 13-7 lead. Pitt had a chance to build on that lead at 157 pounds, as redshirt freshman Taleb Rahmani fought back against Thomas Bullard to force overtime. But Bullard took Rahmani down in overtime to decide the match, 9-7, and the referee deducted a point from the Panthers’ bench, trimming Pitt’s lead to 12-10. At 165, No. 11 TeShan Campbell put together another win for the Panthers to
improve his season record to 15-2. His 5-1 decision over Brian Hamman gave Pitt a 1510 lead, but the Wolfpack took control from that point. NC State 174-pounder Nick Reenan dominated Panthers sophomore Donovan McAfee on his way to a technical fall, but instead the referee disqualified McAfee for stalling as time expired, giving the Wolfpack an additional team point and a 16-15 lead. Michael Macchiavello then followed for NC State with a 9-4 win over Pitt redshirt sophomore Zach Bruce at 184 pounds. Macchiavello started the match out strong with three takedowns in the first two periods. Bruce tried to mount a comeback in the third, but Macchiavello held him off to extend the Wolfpack’s lead to 19-15. Going into the last match of the night, Pitt needed a technical fall or a pin at 197 pounds to pull off the upset. Unfortunately for the Panthers, NC State’s Malik McDonald beat out Pitt senior John Rizzo in a 10-2 major decision to clinch the 23-15 match victory for the Wolfpack. The Panthers will return home to the Fitzgerald Field House for a non-conference showdown with Iowa State at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10.
The Pitt news crossword 2/6/17
Quinn put the Deacons on top once more. The Wake Forest senior was responsible for more than half of her team’s offense in the first half, scoring 14 of Wake Forest’s 24 points. At the end of the half, the Panthers faced a one-point deficit, 24-23. After the break, Bradley’s fourth personal foul sent Quinn to the line for two points. Walters made her second field goal of the game, right before the Demon Deacons added four more points. She also found herself at the free throw line and her two foul shots made it a three-point game, 34-31. Walsh worked her way to a breakout layup and, with 4:38 to go in the third quarter, put up her first points of the game. Wise made her 11th and 12th points of the game with two foul shots, placing the Panthers in a good position to tie the game once more. Whitney’s first foul sent Wake Forest to the foul line to increase the Demon Deacons’ lead, 40-37. With two seconds remaining in the third quarter, Wise drew a foul as she drove for a layup. She missed the layup, but sank both of her free throws to make the score
40-39. Wake Forest entered the final quarter holding onto the lead, but a layup from Walters reversed the advantage, putting the Panthers back on top and Walter’s scoring to double-digits. Two fouls by Bugg sent the Demon Deacons to the foul line twice, allowing Wake Forest to put up three points. Walters tied the game with a layup, but a jumper from the Deacons quickly broke the tie, 45-43. From then on, the Panthers were unable to regain the lead. With three minutes remaining in the game, the Demon Deacons made their first 3-pointer, shortly followed up by a jumper. Walters answered the opponent’s baskets with a layup, but Wake Forest did not let up, scoring a layup of its own to give the home team a six-point lead, 52-46. A solid drive to the basket from Wise gave the Panthers two more points, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Demon Deacons’ scoring rampage. The Panthers were unable to stem their losing streak and dropped their fourth game in a row with a final score of 57-48. The Panthers return to the Petersen Events Center Thursday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. to take on the Clemson Tigers.
pittnews.com
February 6, 2017
9