In the same city where the professional baseball Pirates have suffered 20 consecutive losing seasons, another set of Pirates experienced a similar fate on Monday night.

The Pitt mens basketball team outlasted the Seton Hall Pirates (13-10, 2-8 Big East) by a score of 56-46 in a scrappy contest at the Petersen Events Center that showed that the No. 23 Panthers (19-5, 7-4 Big East) still have room to improve.

Despite the worst offensive shooting performance of the season from Pitt the Panthers converted only 34.8 percent of their field-goal attempts head coach Jamie Dixon believes that it was still a solid victory for his team.

Theres not a lot of teams with 19 wins in the country, Dixon said following the game. Youre not going to win every game the same way. This is a good win.

Coming off an impressive win over No. 6 Syracuse on Saturday, the game began well for Dixons squad as the Panthers jumped out to a 6-0 lead thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers by redshirt junior small forward Lamar Patterson.

But following the solid start, the home team struggled to find any offensive rhythm, turning the ball over three times and hoisting up several out-of-sync 3-pointers.

The Pirates couldnt capitalize on the Panthers dry spell, shooting 2-for-12 from the field to begin the game. In a battle filled with early fouls, Seton Hall did take advantage of its free-throw opportunities to tie the game at 12.

Pitt scored the games next four points, but the Pirates responded with a 6-0 run to take their first lead at 18-16.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Seton Hall junior guard Fuquan Edwin kept the Pirates in front, but Pitt battled back with a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Durand Johnson and a 3-point play by freshman center Steven Adams to level the score at 24 heading into halftime.

Patterson stated that even though the first half didnt go as Pitt wouldve liked, the team remained confident that it would pull out the victory.

When your shots arent falling, it does get frustrating, the small forward said. But we fought through it and faced adversity.

The teams traded points early in the second half before the Panthers finally put a run together.

After a missed layup by Pitt, Adams snared his 12th rebound of the game, got fouled and the 33-percent free-throw shooter surprisingly converted both shots from the charity stripe. Then, following a Seton Hall turnover, junior J.J. Moore swished a 3-pointer to extend Pitts lead to 35-28.

But taking advantage of some more Pitt turnovers, the Pirates chipped away at the deficit and eventually retook the lead at 39-38 with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Then Adams played a role in another of the contests defining moments.

The freshman center spun off his defender and powerfully dunked the ball too powerfully for the officials liking. Adams was charged with a technical foul for hanging on the rim, but the incident sparked new life into a previously lackadaisical Pitt squad and its fans.

With the modest Petersen Events Center crowd now vociferously behind its team, the Panthers responded by making several defensive stops and getting enough offense to hold off Seton Hall.

Redshirt sophomore guard Cam Wright felt that Pitt used the energy from the crowd to earn its seventh Big East win of the season.

We had great fan support tonight with the Oakland Zoo, and we fed off of that, Wright said.

The feisty contest was built for Adams, who finished with eight points and a career-high 15 rebounds. Patterson led the Panthers with 12 points in another balanced offensive effort for Pitt.

Winners of six of its last seven games, Pitt will hope to keep the good run going when it travels to Cincinnati on Saturday for a 6 p.m. tipoff. The Panthers lost at home to the Bearcats in their Big East opener back in late December.