Pitt Trio Leads Panthers to 83-74 Win Over Drexel

Saturday, November 28

Pittsburgh, Pa.

1 PM

Pitt

1-1,0-0ACC

Drexel

0-1,0-0CAA

Drexel

Pittsburgh

Photo by: Alex Mowrey/Pitt Athletics

Pitt Trio Leads Panthers to 83-74 Win Over Drexel

11/28/2020 4:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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PITTSBURGH – Pitt leaned heavily on its three returning starters and Xavier Johnson, Au'Diese Toney and Justin Champagnie delivered in a big way as the Panthers posted an 83-74 win over Drexel Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center. The trio combined for 66 points as Johnson (27) and Toney (20) became the first set of Pitt teammates to top the 20-point mark in the same game since Jan. 8, 2020.

The Panthers shot 62.0 percent (31-of-50) from the field as each member of Pitt's high scoring trio shot better than 63.5 percent from the field. Johnson, Toney and Champagnie combined to go 23-of-35 (.657) from the floor as Pitt shot better than 60 percent in a game for just the second time under head coach Jeff Capel.

Pitt came out of the gates strong and shot 64.0 percent (16-of-25) from the field en route to a 46-34 halftime lead. Johnson (12), Champagnie (12) and Toney (11), the Panthers' top three returning scorers, were clicking in the opening half combining for 35 points on 11-of-17 shooting from the field.

Champagnie sparked the attack with Pitt's first seven points, including a three-point play on the opening possession of the game. The Panthers went 4-of-5 from the field and 4-of-5 from the foul line in jumping out to a 12-7 lead in the opening four minutes of action.

Pitt continued to stretch the lead throughout the half making nine of its first 10 shots of the game, including a 4-of-4 effort from Champagnie to go up 22-14 with under 12 minutes remaining.

Consecutive threes by Johnson pushed the Panthers lead to 37-22 and forced a Drexel timeout with 5:31 remaining in the first half. The Dragons went 5-of-7 from the field to close the half on a 12-9 run to chip away at the Pitt lead.

Pitt extended its lead to 16 early in the second half on a pullup bank shot from Ithiel Horton with 16:39 remaining, but Drexel battled back using a 19-8 run in the middle of the second half to trim the deficit to five points with 7:33 remaining.

Johnson buried a three at the 7:07 mark to push the lead back to eight points and Abdoul Karim Coulibaly came up with a blocked shot and a steal on Drexel's next two possessions to help stave off the Dragons.

Champagnie knocked down a corner three late in the shot clock and hit a pull-up from the left baseline at the 4:48 mark to give Pitt a nine-point advantage. The Panthers maintained a three or four possession lead for the remainder of the game to even out their record for the season.

Pitt is scheduled to return to action Wednesday, Dec. 9 at Northwestern (9:15 p.m. l ESPNU) in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Key Stats

Johnson, Toney and Champagnie combined for 66 points, the most by a trio of players under head coach Jeff Capel.
Pitt's 62.0 percent shooting from the field was the second best shooting effort under Capel.
The Panthers posted a 23-9 edge in fast break points.
Despite Drexel shooting 48.4 percent from the field, Pitt was solid with its three-point percentage defense as the Dragons were just 3-of-19 from beyond the arc.