Pitt
Houston Baptist
No. 22 Pittsburgh Overpowers Houston Baptist, 103-62
11/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 9, 2007
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By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The half-court system, the ever-present patience, the reluctance to open up the offense, Pitt tossed all of that out, even if it was for only one night.
Sam Young and DeJuan Blair wanted to run and jump, steal and dunk, and that's exactly what the Panthers did.
Young and Blair overwhelmed former NAIA power Houston Baptist from the start with a quick and decisive burst of fast-break dunking and rebounding and No. 22 Pittsburgh cruised to a season-opening 103-62 victory Friday.
Young had 22 points and nine rebounds and Blair contributed 20 points, 14 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end, and four steals in his first college game. Blair finished one point off Pitt's freshman debut record of 21 by Ricardo Greer in 1997.
"My first game, yeah, I would say it's an excellent game," Blair said.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, 19-0 in November, was concerned because the Huskies (1-2) had played two games, but he need not have worried. With Young and Blair trading alley-oop passes that led to several one-handed jams and a 13-0 Pitt lead in barely four minutes' time, the game was effectively over before the first timeout was called.
"This is the way I've played my whole life," said Young, who felt somewhat restrained in Pitt's more deliberate offense the last two seasons. "I was told to slow down a little bit. I wasn't playing to my strength. I feel the need to make more things happen now."
The Panthers (1-0) couldn't have enjoyed a much better debut as they began the post-Aaron Gray era with only two returning starters from the team that went 29-8 and reached the NCAA round of 16 last season.
"They were so much stronger and more physical," Houston Baptist coach Ron Cottrell said. "I had a feeling they would do more of this. When you lose a player like Aaron, and with the athletes they've brought in, you knew they would be more up and down."
 |  "I really liked our passing. This is a very good passing team." Coach Jamie Dixon |
Houston Baptist had no answer for Young, a 6-foot-6 junior who looks much more comfortable than he did while averaging seven points last season, or Blair, a 6-7 freshman who led his Pittsburgh Schenley High team to a Pennsylvania state championship last season.
"Scoring, passing, rebounding, everything he did impressed me," Young said of Blair, Pitt's most highly recruited local player since Dixon took over in 2003.
Blair is replacing the 7-foot Gray at center despite giving up three to four inches to most Big East post players.
Keith Benjamin added 16 points and Mike Cook had 13 for Pitt, which held a 59-32 rebounding edge and had 16 steals to Houston Baptist's four.
"I feel like if I don't get it, Sam is going to get it," Blair said. "When we start shooting from the outside, the sky's the limit."
Dixon isn't promising Pitt will play this way every night. Houston Baptist was content to run despite falling behind early, and Dixon said the opponent set the pace for this game.
"We were able to do some things in transition, and we passed well and rebounded well," Dixon said. "I really liked our passing. This is a very good passing team."
Blair, who scored the first six points, and Young dominated as nine of Pitt's first 10 field goals came on dunks or layins that probably could have been dunked, an ego-deflating run for a Houston Baptist team that was playing in the Red River Athletic Conference a year ago.
Houston Baptist was a late substitute for Army in the Hispanic College Fund tournament in which four teams will play three games in as many days on Pitt's home floor. It was the second game of an exhausting 18-game road trip for the Aggies, who must go on the road to make money because their own gym seats only 1,500.
The Aggies never had a chance in this one, trailing 19-5, 23-8 and 30-10 even as Dixon emptied his bench with no appreciable falloff in the score.
The Panthers won their 11th consecutive opener and their 20th straight non-conference game. They will play North Carolina A&T on Saturday and Saint Louis on Sunday. Earlier, Saint Louis made a successful debut under new coach Rick Majerus by beating A&T 54-43.
Pitt hadn't scored 100 or more points in its opener since beating Youngstown State 112-66 in 1993.
