Late stretch helps Pitt blow past Marquette

‘ ‘ ‘ DeJuan Blair bounced up and down after swatting a shot into the Pitt bench. Sam Young… ‘ ‘ ‘ DeJuan Blair bounced up and down after swatting a shot into the Pitt bench. Sam Young gave a Marquette player an icy stare following an emphatic slam. Levance Fields screamed in delight after making a pass to Blair for a dunk that tied the game. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The three leaders of the Panthers’ team refused to let Pitt fall after a nearly devastating early second-half run by Marquette and finished the game on a 42-18 run to blow past the Golden Eagles 90-75 Wednesday night at the Petersen Events Center. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Pitt came out of halftime with a 43-36 lead but watched helplessly as Marquette made eight of its first 10 shots for a game-high nine-point advantage at 57-48. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ But the Panthers scored the next nine points to tie the score and send the crowd into a frenzy, and the deafening cheers continued as Pitt outscored the Golden Eagles 33-18 from that point forward. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We realized that even when they made that run and got ahead of us, that we were executing and doing things right and not panicking when they got up,’ said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. ‘We took some shots at the start of that half and just didn’t make them. Eventually, those good shots became makes, and we were able to pull away.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The victory clinched two byes in the Big East tournament and at least the No. 3 seed for the Panthers. They still have a shot at the top seed in the tournament but appear to have a better chance at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘There’s a lot of great college teams out here,’ said Blair. ‘They’ve been swapping No. 1 I don’t know how many times. Just to be on top of almost everybody in the NCAA is big.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ On a night when former Pitt point guard and current assistant coach Brandin Knight had his No. 20 jersey retired, his prized student Fields notched a double-double with 17 points ‘mdash; 13 in the second half ‘mdash; and 10 assists. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘To see the emotion on his face, we have a really great relationship and it was a special moment for me,’ said Knight of Fields during the ceremony. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Blair just missed a double-double of his own and ended the contest with 23 points and nine rebounds. Young added 18 points and eight rebounds, while Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown finished with 13 and 11, respectively. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ No. 3 Pitt (27-3, 14-3 Big East) shot a whopping 63 percent from the field for the game, and not one player shot less than than 55 percent for the day. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ No. 13 Marquette (23-7, 12-5) dropped its third straight game against a top-10 team, losing to Connecticut and Louisville before the defeat to Pitt. After only four minutes in their loss to Connecticut, the Golden Eagles lost senior point guard Dominic James to a foot injury that put him out for the season. James’ team felt his absence in its loss against Pitt. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Jerel McNeal played all 40 minutes for Marquette and led the team with 23 points. Lazar Hayward added 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Wesley Matthews threw in 16 points. The remaining Golden Eagles combined for only 14 points. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 9-4 advantage on 3-pointers by McNeal and Maurice Acker. At that point, Pitt’s stifling defensive pressure smothered Marquette for the next 10 minutes. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The Panthers rattled off a 15-2 run, culminating in a 3-point play from Blair, to set the standard for the rest of the first half. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Neither team made much of a run in the ensuing minutes, with Pitt grabbing its largest lead of the half at 30-20 on a 3-pointer by Fields on a ball that bounced high off the backboard before falling through the net. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Marquette finally gained some momentum by scoring 11 of the game’s next 15 points, once again backed by 3-pointers. Hayward made two, and McNeal and Matthews each added one to cut Pitt’s once double-digit lead to 37-34. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ But a thunderous two-handed dunk by Young in the first half gave the Panthers a 43-36 advantage and appeared to deflate the Golden Eagles heading into the locker room. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Marquette came out shooting in the second half, though, and its 21-5 run put the Panthers in a hole at 57-48. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ As the Petersen crowd erupted, Pitt’s defense tightened and Marquette started taking bad shots. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘You never want to be down nine, but at the same time I thought we were taking good shots,’ said Jamie Dixon. ‘Having confidence in your system, confidence in your players, confidence in one another, if you know you’re doing things right, eventually things will fall the right way.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ After McNeal made a layup with 8:37 to go to cut Pitt’s lead to 69-65, the Panthers went on a 16-0 stretch to put the game out of reach. During the run, Pitt made all six of its shots.