Pitt holds on to top Peacocks

Antonio Graves didn’t start the season opener for the Panthers on Saturday, but that didn’t… Antonio Graves didn’t start the season opener for the Panthers on Saturday, but that didn’t stop him from taking over the game.

Graves was a sniper all night, hitting four of his seven shots from the floor, including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc, to pace Pitt to an 81-72 win over St. Peter’s on Saturday night.

He was quick to give credit for his accuracy to his teammates.

“I think it started with Levance [Fields], Carl [Krauser] and Aaron [Gray],” he said. “Those three guys left a lot of open spaces for me. We’ve got a lot of guys this year that can do a lot of things.”

Graves finished the game with 15 points, one of four Panthers to hit double-digits. Although he wasn’t in the starting lineup for the season opener, the junior made sure to contribute in every way he could.

“If me coming off the bench is what we need, then I’m willing to do it.”

Fields cracked the starting five in his first-ever college game, and he made the most of it. The freshman shot 4-of-5 from the field, including 2-for-3 from three-point range. He also added five assists, matching Krauser for the game high in that category.

The assists had head coach Jamie Dixon smiling after the game, as he once again said how important it was to have several people on the floor who can move the ball around. He also said that Fields’ competitiveness and basketball IQ make the young player a valuable addition to the team.

“He played very well,” Dixon said. “He really made the offense run well when he was in there.”

Fields isn’t letting the start or the praise go to his head, though.

“[The starting lineup is] still up in the air,” he said. “Everybody’s been playing good in practice. It’s going to come down to who plays defense better.”

Graves concurred, saying that the defense has to get better.

“Coach doesn’t want anyone to score on us,” he said.

Dixon echoed Graves, saying that the bright spots on the defensive side of the ball – such as Krauser’s three steals – weren’t enough to have him completely pleased just yet.

“I thought our defenses were good for stretches,” he said, “but not for 40 minutes.”

Dixon did say that Graves and Fields played solid defense on Keydran Clark, the Peacocks’ leading scorer.

St. Peter’s matched the Panthers early in the game – mostly because of Clark’s 12 points in the first eight minutes – and the two traded leads for more than eight minutes. But after St. Peter’s tied the game at 28, the Panthers went on a 14-1 run over the final 5:12 of the half to pull away.

St. Peter’s head coach Bob Leckie admitted that his team struggled to play at Pitt’s level in the first half, but felt good about what they did in the final 20 minutes.

“Pitt did a real good job of finding the open man in the first half,” he said. “I thought that they got a little too comfortable [in the second half].”

Things looked all but over in the second half, as Keith Benjamin’s basket with 10:56 left in the game capped a 23-7 Pitt run. The shot opened the Panthers’ lead to 28, and could have ended things if not for the resiliency of St. Peter’s.

The Peacocks answered with a 9-0 run of their own, closing the gap to 19. The lead hovered just around that margin until the 5:15 mark, when St. Peter’s went on another 9-0 run to close the gap to 12.

However, time became too much of a factor for St. Peter’s to overcome. Although Derrick Hooker’s trey brought the Peacocks as close as seven points with 46 seconds to play, the visitors had to foul.

The fact that they stayed in the game was a testament to the strong play of Clark. The two-time defending national scoring champion showed the Petersen Events Center exactly why people anticipate his winning a third title, as he scored 30 points to lead all scorers. He attributed his point total to the Panthers’ defensive style.

“They actually played me one-on-one,” he said. “That’s something I love to see. Once they started doing that, my eyes got big.”

Gray connected on 5-of-6 free throws for the Panthers in the last 42 seconds to help ice the game. He finished with 17 points to lead the Panthers.