River City Romp

Every time Cincinnati attempted to make some kind of run to get back into Sunday’s contest… Every time Cincinnati attempted to make some kind of run to get back into Sunday’s contest with No. 13 Pitt, the Panthers found an answer.

Those responses came in various forms – the predictable (leading scorer Carl Krauser and inside presence Aaron Gray), the likely (Ronald Ramon) and the unexpected (Keith Benjamin) all surfaced to quell any Bearcat runs as Pitt coasted to an 89-69 win in the latest installment of the River City Rivalry.

“I think we passed the ball well and got a lot of good performances from guys on the court and off the bench,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. “I thought all of our guys played very well.”

“When we thought we were starting to get back into [the game], we did foolish things with the ball, which they capitalized on,” Cincinnati head coach Andy Kennedy said, referring to his team’s 16 turnovers. “Good teams do.”

Although Krauser’s 18 points led the Panthers in scoring on the day and it was Gray’s three early buckets that fueled a 19-7 run to start the game, Benjamin did the most consistent damage on the afternoon. The sophomore poured in a career-high 16 points, hitting all three of his free throw and 3-point attempts.

“He provided the spark that really started them,” Kennedy said, referring to one instance in the second half when Benjamin dribbled along the 3-point line, realized that the shot clock was nearing zero and pulled up from behind the arc and drained the 3.

That long-distance shot came shortly after he had hit another 3 from the wind. The shot clock-beating 3 gave the Panthers (No. 13 ESPN/USA Today/No. 14 AP) a 54-42 lead with 14 minutes left and also killed a mild Cincinnati run in the process.

Moments later, he took an open-court pass on a fast-break opportunity and instead of going in for an inside score – something he had done twice already in this game – he laid it off to Gray, who slammed it home.

“We took good shots,” Dixon said of his team’s 32-for-57 shooting afternoon. The 56.1 percent shooting was a season best for the Panthers, who won their second straight after losing two in a row to ranked foes two weeks ago.

Gray enjoyed a comfortable shooting percentage as well, finishing 6-for-7 from the field to finish with a quiet 15 points and 10 rebounds, notching his league-leading 13th double-double. His two quick scores to open the game not only forced the Cincinnati defense to collapse on him, but it opened up the Panthers’ shooters from outside, something that the Pitt players were quick to point out.

“When we give the ball to the big guy, he’s doing a lot of things in there,” Krauser said. “He’s kicking the ball out to us.”

“It’s so much easier on me,” Gray said of his team’s ability to hit the 3 – Pitt shot 41 percent from behind the arc on Sunday. “We also got great dribble penetration to make it even easier to get open 3-point attempts.”

Ramon, along with Benjamin, led the way for the Panthers from the outside, hitting six of their combined seven 3-point attempts. Ramon’s first with 8:07 remaining in the first half upped Pitt’s lead to 26-19 after the Bearcats had clawed within four. His next 3-pointer was over Cincinnati’s Jihad Muhammad – who led all scorers with 21 points on the day – this one giving Pitt (19-3 overall, 8-3 Big East) a 31-21 lead with 5:46 left in the opening period.

Cincinnati (16-9, 5-6) came right back to climb within four on a Ronald Allen layup, making the score 33-29 with 3:39 left in the first half.

Ramon, however, wasn’t going to let them get any closer.

He buried a 3 after coming off a screen to push the lead back to seven at 36-29, a lead that the Bearcats would trim to no fewer than six the rest of the game in losing for the seventh time in their last 10 games.

The Panthers, on the contrary, won their 15th-straight game at home, leaving them as the only team aside from UConn that is undefeated at home in the Big East. With the regular season closing down and the Big East tournament (March 8-11) on the horizon, Pitt points to its depth – nine players logged at least 12 minutes on Sunday – as one of the keys to making some noise come March.

“When you only have six or seven guys playing, it’s hard to go against a team with 11 or 12 guys who can do things that starters do,” Krauser said. “That’s the type of different look that we bring this year and that’s what’s going to help us make a run.”

Loose balls… Pitt’s bench, fueled by Benjamin’s 16, outscored Cincinnati’s 33-17-Despite the win, Pitt still trails the Bearcats in the all-time series 6-2. Sunday was the first meeting between the schools since 1979-with two home games left (Feb. 25 against Providence and March 3 against Seton Hall), Pitt is looking to complete only its fourth undefeated home slate in school history, the last of which in the 2002-2003 season. The Panthers are 15-0 at home his season.