Dec 24, 2004 By Stephen Flinn For The 3 min read

PITTSBURGH – After a tough game that was not decided until the final two minutes, Carl Krauser led Pitt to a 69-60 victory over Richmond Thursday night at the Peterson Events Center with a career-high 31 points. With the win, Pitt remains undefeated (9-0) in the pre-Big East Conference schedule.

“We knew coming in Richmond would play tough defense and we felt they had a lot of players who could shoot,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. “We definitely feel good about going into a Christmas break with an undefeated record.”

The Spiders were considered one of the better teams on Pitt’s schedule and they stood up to their expectations by giving the Panthers all they could handle. The last time a Pitt player scored over 30 points was Feb. 16, 2000 when Ricardo Greer scored 33 at Syracuse.

Matt Carroll of Notre Dame is the only other player to ever score over 30 points at the Petersen Events Center.

“It was a good feeling to score 31 points because my team needed me and I felt the best way to help our team was to stop their run by scoring myself,” Krauser said. “I was surprised how much their defense was sagging in the post so I got off a lot of good shots and they were falling for me tonight.”

The Panthers held a 36-29 lead at halftime and never held more than a 10-point lead before the break as the Spiders stayed close throughout most of the game.

Richmond fought back and pulled to within one point at 39-38 early in the second half when T.J. Paterik hit a 3-point shot with 6 minutes left.

Krauser then exploded, with the help of Chevon Troutman, and in one minute gave Pitt back a cushion it would not relinquish.

He hit a long 3-point shot 30 seconds after Paterik’s 3-pointer. Chevon Troutman stole the ball on Richmond’s next possession and dished an outlet pass to Krauser who raced down the court and hit another 3-pointer, drawing a foul on the play.

He missed the free throw, but Troutman rebounded the miss, fed the ball to him, and he drove to the hoop and put up a lay-up. He missed the shot, but set up Troutman who put back the miss to extend Pitt’s lead back to nine points.

Richmond head coach Jerry Wainright called time out to stop the bleeding, and the crowd of 10,024 responded by cheering almost as loudly as they did when new Pitt football head coach Dave Wannstedt was introduced at halftime.

“I though the momentum of the game changed in an instant when Krauser went on that tear on three possessions in the second half because we were only down one and it seemed like about seven seconds later we were down nine,” Wainright said.

“Krauser was all over the floor so he lost some skin tonight, and I would say his 31 points was not a prima donna 31. He got our young guards twisted on some plays and he really earned his points tonight.”

The closest Richmond would get after that point was within four points with three minutes left, but the Panthers made seven free throws down the stretch, including five by Krauser, to secure the win.

Krauser was joined in double-figure scoring by Chris Taft, who scored 11 before leaving the game and Ronald Ramon, who filled in for the injured Graves and added 10. Chevon Troutman failed to score in double figures again, but did pull down 10 rebounds to contribute to Pitt’s 11-rebound advantage (40-29) over the Spiders.