Panthers show dominance in victory over Scarlet Knights

The Panthers’ killer instinct returned for yet another game as they came out with a sizable… The Panthers’ killer instinct returned for yet another game as they came out with a sizable second half lead and continued to dominate the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in their 86-65 victory Saturday night.

Pitt held the Scarlet Knights to 14 points in the first half while coming up with 29 points of its own.

The No. 9 Panthers were able to turn in such a dominant first half performance because of a stifling defense, which forced 13 first half turnovers. Rutgers shot a dismal five for 23 from the field and was one-of-11 from three-point range.

“That’s really where we set the tone right from the beginning is that we played great defense tonight,” Pitt head coach Ben Howland said.

Redshirt freshman guard Carl Krauser came up with three steals in the first half and Ontario Lett also contributed a steal.

Steals were the least of Rutgers’ problems as it could not pass the ball effectively. The Scarlet Knights unleashed several errant passes, which also contributed to their 13 turnovers in the half.

“Our turnovers were bad. We said that was one of the things that we wanted to work on was not having too many turnovers,” Rutgers head coach Gary Waters said. “All of our turnovers led to good things for Pittsburgh.”

Brandin Knight got the Panthers started with a three-pointer, but Rutgers quickly took a 4-3 lead on baskets by Herve Lamizana and Rickey Shields. At that point, the Scarlet Knights had two minutes, six seconds to enjoy a lead in the game.

Donatas Zavackas’ three-pointer off an assist from Jaron Brown sparked a 10-2 run, which saw Chevon Troutman knock down three foul shots and a Julius Page layup.

Krauser finished the run with a three-pointer and a heads up play as he picked up a loose ball off an errant pass and drove the lane with five seconds left on the shot clock and laid it in for the basket.

“Carl is getting good experience,” Howland said of Krauser’s 11-point performance. “It’s good to know that we have someone who can come in and control the team when Brandin [Knight] is out.”

Pitt finished its dominant first half on a 12-6 run. Page finished the run as he came up with a rebound and drove the paint in traffic with time expiring in the first half. Page threw up a desperation shot as he was falling and Troutman was able to grab the rebound and lay it in with 1 second left on the clock.

In the second half, the Panthers built on Troutman’s last second shot and came out with the killer instinct they lacked earlier in the season.

The Panthers stepped it up in the second half, as it was 19-of-30 from the floor compared to 10-of-27 in the first half.

“Offensively I thought we were much better in the second half,” Howland said.

Lett led Pitt in scoring with 13 points despite only playing 23 minutes and Brown was right behind him with 12 points.

Rutgers improved in the second half as it was 17-of-38 from the floor and put up 51 points, but the Panthers continued to pound away. Pitt scored 57 points and knocked down seven-of-15 shots from beyond the arc in the second half.

“They made shots at the end of the game when it really didn’t matter,” Knight said. “In the first half and the early part of the second half we basically controlled the tempo.”