Panthers win, 96-75
PITTSBURGH – Wednesday night was the three-year anniversary of Pitt’s loss to the Patriot League’s Bucknell, the Panthers’ only non-conference loss at the Petersen Events Center in the history of the building. Lafayette tried to become another Patriot League team to upset 13th-ranked Pitt at the Pete, and almost accomplished that objective last night. After falling behind by as much as seven points in the first half, the Panthers closed the deficit to two points, 41-39, at half. They recovered midway through the second half on both sides of the ball and pulled away for a 96-75 win.
The Leopards gave the Panthers all they could handle by hitting 17-of-31 3-point attempts, shattering the previous record for treys made by an opponent against Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. The previous record was 13 by Notre Dame two seasons ago.
The Panthers suddenly find themselves down three scholarship players, including two starters after senior Mike Cook tore his ACL against Duke on Dec. 20 and junior Levance Fields broke his foot against Dayton on Saturday night. Reserve Austin Wallace tore his knee during practice the week earlier. Dixon described the situation as rare, and the Panthers now have to rebound.
“We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves and had to become a new team over the last few days, so we made sure we played with focus and determination and I thought our guys handled this game really well,” Dixon said. “We’re looking forward to our players who are now getting minutes to be that much better when Levance returns. When Mike, Levance and Austin all went down in that short time span, that was a rare situation, so we needed this game to refocus.”
Previous contributors Keith Benjamin, Gilbert Brown, and Tyrell Biggs all responded with career-high minutes and all scored in double figures. Biggs and Benjamin turned in career-high scoring as well.
Benjamin started at point guard in place of Levance Fields, who is out 8-12 weeks with a broken foot. He finished with a career-high 20 points and dished five assists.
Biggs also filled in admirably with a career-high 19 points while pulling down four rebounds. His put-back on a DeJuan Blair missed free throw midway in the second half gave the Panthers their first double-digit lead of the game, 68-58, and they never looked back.
Ronald Ramon shifted to point guard for much of the game, and dished a career-high 10 assists and scored 11 points.
Lafayette head coach Fran O’Hanlon felt his team got off to a good start in the first half, but Pitt’s defense turned it up a notch in the second half.
“We shot the ball well in the first half but got worn down in the second half by superior athletes,” O’Hanlon said. “I thought we lost a little poise in the second half, and I don’t know if there was an exact moment when I felt the game slip away but they started making shots and I could see that their confidence was growing and the momentum shifted in their direction.”
The Panther start Big East Conference play with a two-game road trip. They travel to Villanova on Sunday afternoon and South Florida next Wednesday night.