Pitt
4-0,0-0ACC
West Virginia
2-1,0-0Big 12
Panthers Overwhelm West Virginia in 86-62 Home Win
11/15/2024 11:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Dunn Nets Season-High 23 Points; Guillermo Diaz Graham Records Double-Double
PITTSBURGH – Pitt charged out to an early lead and never looked back en route to a dominating 86-62 win over West Virginia in the 191st edition of the Backyard Brawl Friday evening at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers never trailed in the contest, held a double-figure lead for the final 30:35 of game action, and led by as much as 31 points on the night in front of a raucous home crowd.
Damian Dunn scored a season-high 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, including a 4-of-7 effort from three-point range, to lead four double-figure scorers for the Panthers. Ishmael Leggett added 15 points and Cameron Corhen posted 14 points and five rebounds as Pitt earned its second consecutive win over West Virginia.
Guillermo Diaz Graham took an elbow to the mouth on the Mountaineers first possession of the game and had to be taken to the training room for stitches. He returned with a vengeance to finish the night with 10 points and 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Diaz-Graham went 4-of-5 from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range, and had a couple of offensive rebound putbacks in the second half that brought the Panthers bench to their feet.
Pitt jumped out to a 10-4 lead on the strength of a Corhen three-pointer and three-point play by Lowe in the opening 3:17 of action and extended the advantage to 18-8 on a Dunn three pointer with just over 12 minutes remaining in the opening half.
Corhen capped off a 9-0 run with a short jumper to give the Panthers a 29-12 lead at the 8:28 mark. Following a West Virginia basket from Toby Okani, Pitt countered with threes by Guillermo Diaz Graham and Dunn to grab a 21-point lead and force a Mountaineer timeout with 7:11 remaining in the half.
Pitt added a 6-0 run to close the half with Lowe coming up with a steal and finding Dunn for an alley-oop lay-in just before the halftime buzzer to send the Panthers into the break with a 44-22 lead. West Virginia shot just 33.3 percent (10-of-30) from the field, including 2-of-13 (.154) from three-point range in the first half.
The Panthers shot 51.7 percent (15-of-29) from the field in the opening half and delivered a dominating performance on the boards with a 24-11 rebounding advantage. Dunn paced the offense with 11 points, while Corhen and Leggett added nine and eight points, respectively.
Pitt opened the second half with a Dunn three and continued to own the game on both ends of the floor. Dunn drilled his fourth three-pointer of the game at the 13:03 mark to top the 20-point plateau for the game and give the Panthers a 62-31 lead.
The Panthers maintained at least a 25-point lead through the bulk of the second half until a 6-0 run by West Virginia trimmed the deficit to 83-61 with 1:31 remaining.
Amsal Delalic knocked down a three-pointer in the closing minute for the Panthers final bucket of the night.
Jonathan Powell came off the West Virginia bench to score a team-high 16 points, while Javon Small added 12 points. The Panthers limited high-scoring forward Tucker DeVries to just six points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field. DeVries entered the night averaging 17.5 points per game.
BOARD WORK
Pitt dominated the backboards Friday night with a 45-33 rebounding advantage. Lowe posted a career-high nine rebounds, while eight different players had three or more rebounds in the game.
ON THE MARGINS
Pitt's 24-point victory was its largest against the Mountaineers since an 82-46 win over West Virginia at the Petersen Events Center on Feb. 12, 2003.
FIRST HALF RUNS
Pitt grabbed control of the game with a 15-2 run from the 10:35 to 7:11 mark the opening half. The Panthers went 6-of-10 from the field with three three-point field goals during the run. Pitt also had an 8-0 and a 9-0 run in the first half of action before closing the first 20 minutes with a 6-0 run to grab a 22-point advantage at the break.
80 AGAIN
The Panthers topped the 80-point mark for the fourth consecutive game and improved to 42-2 under Jeff Capel when scoring 80 or more points in a game. Pitt has won its past 19 games when topping the 80-point mark.
G VERSUS WV
Guillermo Diaz Graham is 10-of-12 from the field, including 5-of-7 from three-point range, in his career against West Virginia.
YOU VS. THE ZOO
Pitt's famed student section, the Oakland Zoo, showed up and showed out on Friday setting a student attendance record of 3,200.
UP NEXT
Pitt opens play in the Greenbrier Tip-Off Monday, Nov. 18 at the Petersen Events Center against VMI (7 pm – ACC Network Extra). The Panthers travel to White Sulpher Spring, W.V. to play the final two games of the event at the Greenbrier Resort beginning with a Nov. 22 contest against LSU (2:30 pm – CBS Sports Network).
