Pitt waltzes to victory over Chicago State
PITTSBURGH – The Holiday Hoops Tournament continued at the Petersen Events Center Wednesday night, but one could hardly call visiting Chicago State a Tournament team. After going down to the wire on Monday before pulling out a last-second win over Georgetown College, No. 18-ranked Pittsburgh (9-0) sauntered to a 79-51 victory over the 1-8 Cougars.
“We’re real happy with where we’re at and with our performance tonight,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “We executed well on offense and I was real pleased with our effort on defense.”
Pitt opened up a 12-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game before Chicago State finally scored when Tony Hansbro hit a short jumper.
The Panthers cruised to a 50-18 halftime lead as 11 different players scored, and all 12 scholarship players saw action before the break.
“I was surprised with how big of a lead we were able to mount,” Dixon said. “I was very concerned with this tournament, because we play so many games in a short period of time, so it was great to be able to rest our starters and get some other guys some important playing time.”
Eleven different Panthers scored in the first half, including Julius Page, who found a shooting touch early led all scorers with 14 points in only 18 minutes of play. He was a perfect 3 for 3 from 3-point range, which all came in the first 8 minutes of the game.
“I got open shots and I just took them,” Page said. “We just did some shooting the day before the game instead of a hard practice, so I think that helped my shooting tonight.”
Page also appreciated the rest he and his fellow starters enjoyed. They gave way to the bench players about 7 minutes into the second half.
“We wanted to put the game away early so our starters could get some rest,” Page said. “It was good to see the other players who work hard in practice all week actually get some playing time.”
One such player was freshman Antonio Graves, who is expected to contribute right away at the backup point guard position. He logged 21 minutes and scored and hit his first 3-point attempt.
“It was important for Antonio to get some minutes because it’s hard with all our players to get everybody the minutes they deserve,” Dixon said. “We were real pleased with his (Graves) effort.”
Starting point guard Carl Krauser scored in double-figures as well with 10 points. He felt Graves performed well in backing him up at that slot.
“I thought he played well tonight because he hit some tough shots, crashed the boards and played solid dee(fense) and controlled the flow of the game,” Krauser said. “I thought all the other players did well tonight too.”
Yuri Demetris was another bench player that performed well. He scored a career-high 10 points and pulled down 2 rebounds and recorded 2 steals in 21 minutes of play.
Chicago State head coach Kevin Jones was flabbergasted with the size of Pitt’s players. The Cougars have played some quality teams this season, including No. 16 Purdue, Northwestern, Murray State and Northern Iowa, but felt the Panthers were the strongest and biggest team they have faced this year.
“We have played some good teams this year, but nobody got up on us early like they did,” Jones said. “This was by far the biggest and strongest team we faced and there is a reason Pitt is No. 18 in the country and plays in the Big East.”
Jones, beginning his second year at Chicago State, does not back away from any team, though, as he feels facing tough teams early can only benefit his team in their conference play.
“When you play a Pitt, how can you be afraid to play a Valparaiso, or an Oakland down the road,” Jones said. “We have no tradition here so we need to get tougher and build up to a better level of play, which can only happen if we pick up our level of competition.”
The competition will pick up considerable for the Panthers in their next two tournament contests, which are both against undefeated teams. Pittsburgh will face Murray State Saturday night and Florida State Monday night.
“We’re happy to be 9-0 and very excited to see Murray State and Florida State in our next two games,” Dixon said. “Very few teams in the country right now that are undefeated, and we have 3 undefeated teams in this tournament.
Krauser is excited for the chance to play an undefeated team because he considers it a great challenge to defend Pitt’s home court against good competition.
“It’s all business out on the court, so we’re real excited to face the next 2 teams,” Krauser said. “It’s always great to play in a game between undefeated teams and see who’s the team that will emerge.”