Pitt stifles Bulls in victory

December road losses to Oklahoma State and Wisconsin have given rise to one large question… December road losses to Oklahoma State and Wisconsin have given rise to one large question surrounding Jamie Dixon’s Pitt Panthers – what happened to the defense?

The Badgers lit up Pitt for 89 points while the Cowboys, despite getting two overtime periods, rang up 95 on a team once known for its hard-nosed defense. While the offense has been there, the defense hasn’t turned the corner just yet. Dixon is adamant when he says the team is improving defensively, though, and now his team is starting to back him up.

Pitt used a stout defense to hold visiting South Florida without a field goal for more than five minutes in the beginning stages of the second half on Sunday. The Pitt offense eventually caught fire, turning a relatively close game into the much-expected 69-48 blowout.

“The significant things are to out-rebound our opponent, hold them to below 40 percent shooting and commit fewer than 12 turnovers,” Dixon said after the game. “Those are our goals, and we accomplished all of them, and that usually leads to a win.”

After falling behind by 10 at halftime, South Florida found itself struggling to make a field goal once the second half got under way. The Bulls made two of their first three attempts to close within 34-26, but the next eight attempts all went awry as Pitt’s too-close-for-comfort lead began to swell.

By the time South Florida made its next field goal, the Panthers (14-2 overall, 2-0 Big East) had built a 17-point lead.

“I really like the makeup of that team, they don’t come out and try to trick you and they don’t have to,” South Florida coach Robert McCullum said. “I like the fact that, to be a great team, you’ve got to defensively take away the easy shots. You have to make them beat you in the half-court, and they do that.”

The Bulls (9-7, 0-2) didn’t do much to counteract the solid defense, hitting only 18 field goals all game. Meanwhile, Pitt slowly found its rhythm in the second half, doing most of the damage from behind the arc.

Ronald Ramon started lighting it up from the outside, accounting for three of Pitt’s 10 3-point makes on the afternoon, while every other Panther eventually got involved. Levance Fields led Pitt with 11 points while Ramon, Antonio Graves and Mike Cook each chipped in nine for the Panthers, who dished out 18 assists on 26 baskets.

“I think we distributed the ball well, we went inside early, and they double teamed,” Ramon said. “We ran our motion well and got guys open to get some great shots.”

Pitt needed those open looks, since the points weren’t coming from inside. Center Aaron Gray netted only four points and four rebounds, making this the fourth straight game he failed to register in double figures. Nobody appears too concerned about the Preseason Big East Player of the Year, though.

“Aaron is a smart player, he sees the double team,” Ramon said. “Whenever he is in the game, it’s a big difference. When he’s not scoring its defense, it’s passing the ball – his presence is felt whenever he is in the game.”

Although this one didn’t completely resemble the predicted matchup of preseason favorite vs. preseason basement dweller, it did go somewhat according to form. Pitt stumbled out of the gates before finding its stride and took its time in pulling away from a South Florida team not one month removed from a 69-63 neutral-court loss to Texas A’M-Corpus Christi.

Both teams started off the game in anything but impressive fashion, and Pitt’s sloppiness kept the underdogs very much in the game. The Panthers followed up defensive blocks with air balls, steals with bricks and offensive rebounds with even more missed shots. Dixon’s bunch missed 17 of its first 22 shots to go along with four early turnovers to keep the game close. Pitt ultimately made only 26 of its 61 field goal attempts.

“I thought we shot the ball well from 3 and not well from inside 3, which was interesting, but when you get 18 assists and eight turnovers, then you have to be happy with that,” Dixon said.

It wasn’t until the 5:16 mark of the first half that Pitt would enjoy any kind of comfortable lead. After two offensive rebounds – Pitt collected 16 on the afternoon, leading to 17 more shot attempts than the Bulls – Graves hit a wide-open 3 from the left wing. On USF’s next possession, the senior came away with a steal and a breakaway dunk, giving the Panthers a 23-15 lead that forced McCullum to call a timeout.

Moments later, Ramon hit a 3 from the same spot as Graves and, suddenly, Pitt had built an 11-point lead. A few South Florida buckets kept the Bulls within striking distance, but a Sam Young layup as time expired pushed the lead back into double digits at 32-22. Pitt would lead by as many as the final margin on the day in moving to 2-0 in the conference for the second straight season.

“We won by 21, I don’t know how much more we could have done,” Dixon said in the face of questions about sloppiness. “South Florida is a team that comes out and plays very hard. [McCullum’s] is a team that plays hard, and I was impressed with how hard they continued to play even when they were down.”

Pitt will next head to the Windy City for a Wednesday bout with DePaul, a team the Panthers edged at home last year. The contest will be an ESPN2 national telecast.