Men’s Basketball: Brown’s 28 powers Panthers past Maryland Eastern Shore

One week after trailing Tennessee for the entire game in its first loss, the Pitt men’s… One week after trailing Tennessee for the entire game in its first loss, the Pitt men’s basketball team never trailed against Maryland Eastern Shore, as Gilbert Brown finished with his best offensive showing of the season.

Brown scored a career-high 28 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists as the No. 8 Panthers (11-1) defeated UMES (2-7), 97-64.

Brown shot 11-of-13 from the floor, including four for five from 3-point range and two for two from the foul line. He said he felt confident shooting the ball the whole week of practice heading into the game against the Hawks.

“Basically, my whole mindset going into practices and into games now is no hesitation, just play basketball,” he said. “That’s what everybody on the team has to think like. We have to have an aggressive mindset.”

Despite his impressive night from the field, Brown said he didn’t pay attention to his scoring in the game, because the success as a team is the only statistic that matters. It could have been any player getting hot from the field, he said.

“With the team we have, it could have been Ashton [Gibbs] or Brad [Wanamaker] just coming out here and knocking down their first three or four shots and it could have been them,” he said. “But it was my night.”

Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said the hamstring injury Brown suffered early in the year set him back. Brown missed some early practices and the pre-season Blue-Gold scrimmage. But Dixon likes where Brown is headed now. Brown moved without the ball and came off screens well, Dixon said, and he often set screens and got himself open that way.

“He played good defense, took good shots, got a couple of rebounds,” Dixon said. “He started out slowly this year because of the injuries, but I like where he’s at right now and where he’s going to be.”

Even though he had the hot hand, Brown continued to dish out the assists, which was a theme for the Panthers all night. In fact, perhaps the most impressive statistic for Pitt came in the assist column, where the Panthers dished out 33 assists on 41 field goals – a Petersen Events Center record. Four Panthers had five assists or more, led by Travon Woodall who dished out nine.

“Gilbert’s making shots and still making passes and not just looking out for his own,” Dixon said. “We’re known for our unselfishness, but 33 is still a number that really stands out. Even with our standards, that’s an unbelievable number. I really think our offense is heading in the right direction.”

Although UMES never led in the game, the Hawks hung around for much of the first half. But with Pitt only up four with 6:46 remaining in the before the break, Brown decided it was time to take over, leading the Panthers on a 14-1 run.

“They have too much depth and too much talent,” UMES head coach Frankie Allen said of Pitt’s run. “You knew pretty soon they were going to pick it up. I don’t think we had them on the ropes.”

After UMES’s Hillary Haley hit a long two to make the score 26-22, Brown scored seven straight points for the Panthers.

He hit a three from the baseline, and then followed with a long jumper. He added two foul shots on Pitt’s next possession to give Pitt its first double-digit lead. Then, after Haley made one foul shot at the other end, Brown found Gary McGhee with a bounce pass inside and McGhee converted the lay-up to make the score 35-23 in favor of the Panthers.

Brown scored 19 points in the first half and missed only one shot from the field.

The Hawks scored the last points of the half on a Freddy Obame Obame lay-up with seven seconds remaining, but Brown’s offensive burst sent the Panthers into the break with a 47-32 advantage.

“Pitt’s just too much for us,” Allen said. “They are very talented. We were really out-classed and out-manned. You look at that team and you know they are going to go a long way as the year progresses.”

Haley led UMES at the break, hitting two threes on the way to scoring 11 points. Tyler Hines added eight points on four for five shooting from the field.

The Panthers scored 27 of the first 39 points in the second half to extend their lead to 77-44. Brown didn’t let up offensively, scoring nine points within the first eight minutes after the break.

Dishawn Bradshaw started the second half scoring with a three, but the Panthers answered by scoring on three straight possessions. McGhee grabbed his own offensive put back and made the lay-up for two, Brown followed with a jumper and then Wanamaker found Brown for a breakaway dunk.

Midway through the second half, Pitt was shooting 87.5 percent from the field, hitting 14-16 shots including a perfect three for three from 3-point range. The Panthers finished the half with a 60 percent field goal percentage to shoot 55.4 percent for the game.

“I’ve been happy with the progression of our offense,” Dixon said. “I’m really happy with our unselfishness, the ball movement and the player movement…It’s been good for the last couple of weeks…We made some strides this week.”

The Hawks shot 39.7 percent for the game and 31.3 percent from three. A game after being out-rebounded by Tennessee 34 to 32, Pitt went to the boards hard against UMES to grab 53 rebounds to the Hawks’ 26.

Besides Brown, three other Panthers finished with double figures. McGhee finished with a double-double, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Ashton Gibbs added 13 points and seven assists, while Woodall almost put up a doubled-double with 10 points and nine assists.

Pitt’s last non-conference game is on Dec. 22 against American in the Petersen Events Center. After that game, the Panthers start Big East conference play at home against No. 4 Connecticut on Dec. 27.