Men’s Basketball: Panthers pull away from Delaware State

For much of the first half of the Pitt men’s basketball team’s game against Delaware State on Wednesday, the loudest noise in the Petersen Events Center was that of sneakers squeaking on the court floor.

Such was the lack of atmosphere coming from the few dozen students in the Oakland Zoo and the announced 9,522 fans who attended what ended up being yet another lopsided December basketball game between Pitt and a mismatched mid-major opponent.

What the restless crowd needed was for the Panthers to stop playing like it was another meaningless early season game.

After allowing the Hornets (5-7, 1-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) to stick around in a sloppy first half, the Panthers (11-1) got the fans excited with some high-flying dunks and pulled away in the second half to stretch their winning streak to seven games with a 71-43 victory.

Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon saw a need for improvement in his team, despite the dominant victory.

“We know we’ve got a long way to go,” Coach Dixon said after the game. “We’ve got a lot of improvements to make, and we got a lot of new guys that are getting better and figuring things out.”

At the very beginning of the game, it appeared the contest would resemble Pitt’s most recent two wins — a 42-point thumping of North Florida and a 49-point shellacking of Bethune Cookman — as the Panthers jumped out to a 10-3 lead.

But turnovers slowed Pitt’s offense and Delaware State finally started making shots. After a 12-4 run, the Hornets had their first — and only, as it turned out — lead of the game.

Redshirt junior Lamar Patterson felt the Panthers were trying to make too many intricate passes during that stretch, resulting in turnovers.

“The first half, we weren’t patient, so we had a few turnovers,” Patterson said. “Forcing the ball led to turnovers.”

When the Panthers did get a shot off in the first half, they usually scored. Pitt converted 13 of 19 field goal attempts to shoot an impressive 68.4 percent in the game’s opening 20 minutes.

That high success rate probably stemmed from the fact that many of Pitt’s buckets were dunks.

Junior forwards J.J. Moore and Talib Zanna finished slams on back-to-back possessions for the Panthers to break an 18-18 tie, and Pitt never gave up that lead.

Down just 31-27 at the break, Delaware State managed to stay close, but the Panthers scored the first 10 points of the second half to open up a double-digit advantage for the first time in the game.

Coach Dixon was much more pleased with how his team played in the second half.

“We got better in the second half — obviously played really well,” Dixon said. “I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside, and that’s what we wanted to do.”

That vital run was sparked by Zanna, who took advantage of inside passes to tie his career-high record of 20 points in the game.

“He’s simplified his game,” Coach Dixon said of Zanna. “He lets things come to him and gets to the right spot. He’s doing a really good job, playing to his strengths and feeling more comfortable.”

Along with Pitt’s ability to score inside at will for much of the game, Delaware State head coach Greg Jackson thought that talent and rebounding also affected the outcome.

“I thought the talent level took over in the second half. Any time you get outrebounded 35-14, you’re not going to win the ball game,” Jackson said.

The Panthers will host Kennesaw State on Sunday, Dec. 23 at 5 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center in their last non-conference game.