Intensity on defense picks up

With just under three minutes remaining in the first half of Pitt’s game with DePaul last… With just under three minutes remaining in the first half of Pitt’s game with DePaul last night, forward Sam Young stripped the ball away from a Blue Demon at mid-court.

Instinctively, Young’s next motion threw him to the floor, lunging toward the loose ball. His outstretched arm tipped the ball forward to teammate Keith Benjamin.

Benjamin gathered the loose ball, completing the steal, and took one step at the hoop before throwing down a two-handed dunk, which put the Panthers on top 26-16 for their first double-digit lead.

The play displayed more than Pitt’s ever-improving defense, but showed signs of the gutsy, all-out effort fans are used to seeing from the Panthers’ players.

Pitt’s 59-49 win over the Blue Demons inside DePaul’s Allstate Arena featured many of the same moments. And in each case, a superb play by a Pitt defender quickly turned things in Pitt’s favor.

“I thought we came out and defended all the way through,” head coach Jamie Dixon said after the game. “It was really satisfying to our team to carry out our defense all the way.”

The Pitt defense held DePaul to its second-lowest first-half point total on the season with a 28-18 lead at the half.

That lead, however, was nothing to sit on for the Panthers. On Dec. 2 of this season, the Blue Demons were held to their lowest point total (17) by the then-No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks.

In that game, though, DePaul outscored Kansas by 16 (47-31) in the second half to walk away victorious.

“We controlled the game today,” Pitt center Aaron Gray said. “I thought we did a good job in that to make them play our style of game. There are obviously things we need to get better at, but we’re willing to do that.

“We’re going to be even better down the road.”

Despite the Blue Demons upping their scoring in the second half, the Panthers used their defensive attack to match them shot-for-shot.

Two times in the second half, the Panthers slipped into driving lanes to pick up a charge and force an offensive foul turnover.

With 15:27 remaining, point guard Levance Fields swiped at the ball and knocked it away from DePaul’s Jabari Currie. Currie retrieved the ball as he headed for the hoop. As he attempted a shot, Antonio Graves waited for the contact.

Graves took the charge, pushing the ball back in Pitt’s possession. And as the Panthers kept on sacrificing their bodies, their tough-nosed style of play helped wear down the Blue Demons, who settled for 23 3-point attempts in the game.

“We knew they’d be going with a smaller lineup,” Dixon said. “We executed very smart, we understand and can pick things up and make adjustments. This is a very good team, and I thought we did well.”

The Panthers’ hustle continued throughout the 40 minutes of the game, helping ice a victory in the waning minutes of the Blue Demons.

Down 11 with 2:23 seconds left in the game, DePaul’s Draelon Burns fired up a 3-pointer that banked off the rim and toward the sideline out past the perimeter. Pitt forward Mike Cook chased the ball down, beating out two DePaul players for the defensive rebound.

He pushed the ball upcourt, taking advantage of a two-on-one for the Panther offense. When the DePaul defender slipped out to cover Cook, he passed the ball underneath to Fields for an easy layup and a 13-point advantage.

All in all, the Panthers created 15 turnovers, which led to 16 points. They also recorded eight steals, compared to only two by DePaul, while notching 27 defensive rebounds.

To make matters worse, the Blue Demons shot just 33 percent from the floor, including a 6-for-23 (26 percent) effort from beyond the arc.

“We know how good a win this is to beat a team that hasn’t lost a home game and has beaten some good teams,” Dixon said. “But I thought we played very well. We came out and executed the things we wanted to do all game, both offensively and defensively.”