University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Men's Basketball Dominates Howard, 78-42
12/22/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Vonteego Cummings scored 21points against Howard. |
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Vonteego Cummings officially broke out of his extended shooting slump for No. 24 Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. His teammates say the streak actually ended two practices ago.
Cummings, held to only 37 points in his previous four games, scored 21 points and the Panthers shook off a sluggish first half and a 10-day layoff to beat winless Howard 78-42.
The Panthers (8-4), playing for the first time since blowing a four-point lead in the final nine seconds in a 70-69 loss to No. 1 Connecticut on Dec. 12, led only 27-24 at halftime.
"You didn't want to be in there (the locker room)," Cummings said of coach Ralph Willard's halftime tirade. "But we deserved that. We kept thinking they were just Howard."
Cummings scored on a breakaway slam dunk immediately after the second-half tipoff, then added three 3-pointers during a 22-4 run over the first eight minutes of the half.
Cummings, only 2-of-18 while scoring six points in the UConn loss, seemed to gain confidence with every shot, often motioning for the ball while moving into 3-point range. He finished 8-of-13 overall and 4-of-6 on 3-pointers.
"He really came out and played. He was hot and I was trying to get him the ball every time I could," said 6-foot-5 Ricardo Greer, who had 16 points while leading Pitt in rebounds (10) and assists (7).
Greer said the Panthers sensed Cummings, who averages 17.4 points, was back to normal during practice Sunday.
"He came out firing two practices ago, and we knew he was out of it (the slump)," Greer said. "He's a great player, and we play well when he does."
Two of Cummings' 3-pointers came during a 13-0 run that pushed Pitt's lead to 49-28 in a span of less than three minutes.
Cummings averaged 22.2 points in his first six starts, then made only 14-of-57 shots during a four-game slide in which he never scored more than 11 points.
"I took the same shots I've been taking for two weeks," Cummings said. "My shots felt good then, and they felt the same way tonight. The difference was they fell tonight."
The Panthers outrebounded the much smaller Bison 42-21 as Isaac Hawkins added 12 points and six rebounds. Stephen Flores came off the bench for 14 points. Howard managed only six field goals while being outscored 51-18 in the second half.
Melvin Watson scored 12 points for the Bison (0-9), which lost recently to George Mason by 51 points. Howard has finished within 13 points of only one of its nine opponents.
"All the teams in the big conferences play 4-5 games a year like this, and you pick up the paper every day and you see somebody got beat," Howard coach Kirk Saulny said. "Sometimes a team like Pitt will get tight and play not to lose. But they really turned up the tempo in the second half."
The relatively easy game was a rare breather for Pittsburgh, which has played four Top 10 teams while moving back into the rankings for the first time since 1993.
Pittsburgh played without guard Kellii Taylor, who was excused by Willard for two games to attend to personal business. Taylor also will miss Pitt's Big East Conference game against Providence on Dec. 30.
