MORGANTOWN — No. 4-ranked Pitt broke open a close contest midway through the second half to turn back West Virginia 79-67 Sunday evening at the Coliseum before an overflow crowd of 14,329 fans.

The once-beaten Panthers certainly resembled a powerhouse in making their record 18-1 overall and 6-1 in the Big East. The Mountaineers now are 14-5 and 3-3.

WVU coach Bob Huggins lamented, “They got us out of doing in the second half what had kept us in the game in the first half. We didn’t pass the ball and we have to move them.

“I felt we could rebound as long as we moved them, as long as we kept them out of the lane. You can’t have those big, round bodies stand in the lane and we just got down and tried to stop them in the lane and that is a recipe for disaster.”

In all, there were 11 ties and 10 lead changes, most coming in the first half which ended with Pitt leading by just 39-37. WVU had led by five points at 9-4 and Pitt by four at 39-35.

Ties followed at 30, 35 and finally 45 just before the Panthers started to assert their superiority, much to the disappointment of WVU fans.

Pitt’s largest lead of the game was 16 points, first achieved at 71-55 and repeated at 77-61 with 2:39 remaining to play.

Jamie Dixon, the Panthers’ head coach, felt very good about what his multi-talented team had achieved.

He said, “As tough as a place this is and how good of a team this is and how well-coached they are, among other things, this is a very impressive win and a very good win in a lot of ways. We know how good they are and we came and executed throughout.

“I thought we really played well. We really took care of the ball, especially in the second half, and it was not giving them any transition buckets on our turnovers.”

The Panthers shot a sizzling 60 percent in the first half, 48 percent in the second half and 53.6 percent for the game (30-of-56). West Virginia shot only 41.1 percent (23-of-58).

Surprisingly, the Mountaineers managed a 34-31 edge in rebounding, but they committed 13 turnovers compared to just nine by Pitt.

Sam Young led the winning attack with 22 points — 16 in the second half — followed by DeJuan Blair with 16 points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds. Levance Fields had 13 points and Jermaine Dixon 11 points.

Da’Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff were West Virginia’s leading scorers, as usual, with 21 and 16 points, respectively. Darryl “Truck” Bryant chipped in 12 points and Devin Ebanks had nine to go with a team-high six rebounds.

Butler said, “This is a big loss. We’ve got to get back to work hard. I was pretty tired down the stretch. But Pitt was the better team. We can take positives from this game. If we do things right, we will be all right.”

Bryant said, “We let the game get away from us in the second half. It’s tough to play against a team like that. Pitt probably is the best team we’ve played this year.”

Ruoff agreed. “We can’t make mistakes like we did when Pitt was pulling away and expect to win. Yes, I think it’s the best team we’ve played so far. We didn’t switch well on defense tonight. We can learn from this.”

West Virginia’s next game is against St. John’s at home Wednesday night.



No. 4 PITTSBURGH 79,

WEST VIRGINIA 67

PITTSBURGH (18-1)

Biggs 1-3 2-2 4, Young 9-14 4-4 22, Blair 6-12 4-8 16, Fields 4-7 5-5 13, Dixon 4-8 0-0 11, G.Brown 2-5 0-1 4, Gibbs 1-2 0-0 3, Tiesi 0-0 0-0 0, Wanamaker 1-1 0-0 2, Frye 0-1 0-0 0, Robinson 2-2 0-0 4, McGhee 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-56 15-20 79.

WEST VIRGINIA (14-5)

Butler 6-13 7-9 21, Ebanks 4-7 1-1 9, Smith 1-4 0-2 3, Ruoff 5-11 4-4 16, Bryant 4-12 4-4 12, Thoroughman 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 3-5 0-0 6, Thomas 0-0 0-0 0, Flowers 0-4 0-0 0, Proby 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-56 16-20 67.

Halftime—Pittsburgh 39-37. 3-Point Goals—Pittsburgh 4-13 (Dixon 3-5, Gibbs 1-2, Fields 0-1, Frye 0-1, Young 0-2, G.Brown 0-2), West Virginia 5-19 (Butler 2-5, Ruoff 2-7, Smith 1-2, Ebanks 0-1, Bryant 0-4). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Pittsburgh 31 (Blair 11), West Virginia 34 (Butler 6). Assists—Pittsburgh 18 (Fields, Wanamaker 5), West Virginia 15 (Bryant 6). Total Fouls—Pittsburgh 16, West Virginia 12. A—14,329.