Zavackas, Panthers crush Mountaineers

It appears the Pitt men’s basketball team learned its lesson from the past few games.

After… It appears the Pitt men’s basketball team learned its lesson from the past few games.

After building a double-digit halftime lead, the Panthers (17-3 overall, 7-2 Big East) went for the kill in their 82-46 victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers last night at the Petersen Events Center.

“We talked about it [the second half in previous games] in the huddle right after the half,” Brandin Knight said. “We were focused on pushing that lead up early in the half and trying to close out the game.”

The Panthers went into the locker room with a 17-point lead at the half. Instead of reverting back to previous form, they dominated the second half.

Pitt opened up the second half with a 20-6 run. At the 10-minute mark of the second half, the Panthers led 59-28. Pitt shot 12 of 27 from the field in the first half and improved to 16 of 28 in the second half.

Ontario Lett opened up the half with a layup, which was followed by a basket and foul shot by West Virginia’s Drew Schifino. The Mountaineers (12-9, 3-5) were held scoreless from the 17-minute, 58-second mark, until there was 13 minutes, two seconds left in the game.

During that stretch, Jaron Brown scored four points and Julius Page made a layup and foul shot. Carl Krauser and Donatas Zavackas hit back-to-back three-pointers and Troutman made two layups.

With 12:35 left in the game, the Mountaineers faced a 32-point deficit. Pitt never fell back into its previous bad habits as it kept pounding away as its biggest lead on the night reached 41 points.

“I think the key was that we got a lead at halftime. The second half we just came out and we said we are not going to let this go to the last minute,” Zavackas said. “We said we have to put two halves together.”

The Panthers’ defense held West Virginia to 32 percent shooting from the floor in the first half and completely dominated the second half as they held the Mountaineers to a 28.1 field goal percentage, and to just 17 of 53 field goals.

The Panthers and Mountaineers began the game by trading baskets twice, which resulted in a 4-4 tie. Lett put the Panthers up 6-4 with a dunk and Brown scored on Pitt’s next possession putting the team up by four.

Two Panther steals, by Zavackas and Krauser respectively, sparked a 9-2 run, during which, Zavackas was fouled beyond the arc by West Virginia’s Schifino and made two of three of his foul shots.

“I thought Donatas came out and played very well today,” Pitt head coach Ben Howland said. “[He] looked good out there.”

On the Panthers’ ensuing possession, Zavackas drove the lane and got the basket to fall and drew the foul; Zavackas made his foul shot, which was followed by a Krauser steal and two foul shots by Chevon Troutman. Knight lofted a pass to Troutman and he laid it in to finish off the run.

The Panthers were 11 for 15 in the first half from the free-throw line and 6 of 6 in the second half – an 81 percent free-throw percentage for the game.

Zavackas led the Panthers with 15 points and seven rebounds. Troutman finished with 13 points and Krauser was right behind him with 12 points. Pitt manhandled the Mountaineers inside as the team scored 38 points in the paint compared to West Virginia’s 16.

Schifino led West Virginia in scoring with 12 points and Kevin Pittsnogle contributed eight points and eight rebounds. West Virginia had 14 turnovers in the game, which Pitt converted into 38 points.

“It was a complete mismatch in experience strength and defensive ability,” West Virginia head coach John Beilein said. “We don’t take too many [losses] like that. We might have been intimidated.”

“[We did the] things we want to do to win: play good defense and rebound the basketball – all the sharing of the ball,” Howland said. “Everything was [on] all cylinders tonight and that’s good. These guys bounced back from a tough loss and played really well.”

Pitt is next in action Feb. 15 at Seton Hall. Game time is at noon.