Pitt defeats Youngstown State 91-73

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Pitt rolled to its 10th straight victory to start the season, capping the fall semester’s finals week with a 91-73 win against the Youngstown State Penguins. Pitt (10-0) pulled away in the second half, building a lead that totaled as high as 26 points at the expense of Youngstown State (7-5). 

Kendrick Perry entered the contest averaging over 20 points per game, and lived up to his billing as an offensive weapon by scoring 28 points against Pitt on 11-of-18 shooting. 

“We’ve seen pretty much what he can do,” sophomore point guard James Robinson said. “Obviously we didn’t do that good of a job on him, but we were still fortunate enough to come out with the win.”

Pitt’s depth helped the Panthers overcome Perry’s scoring, as five Panthers registered double-figure scoring. It was the fourth time in this season that Pitt had five players score 10 or more points. 

Lamar Patterson led Pitt with 18 points, while Cam Wright scored 13, and Derrick Randall posted 11 off the bench. Talib Zanna and Mike Young each scored 10. 

The Panthers dominated in the post, out-rebounding the Penguins by a 47-21 margin. Zanna recorded 15 boards, while Randall and Young each added seven. 

“Our goal is plus-20 every game on the rebounds,” Young said. “When you have that goal every game, you set that mindset, it doesn’t matter who your opponent is.”

The Panthers achieved that goal, and out-performed head coach Jamie Dixon’s own expectations for how Pitt would combat Youngstown State near the basket. 

“I thought we should beat ‘em,’ Dixon said. “I don’t think I anticipated that much, but I felt we would beat them and should beat them on the glass.”

Youngstown State head coach Jerry Slocum anticipated the Panthers would pose challenges on the boards, and his foresight was proven wise. 

“We couldn’t handle their strength and physicality,” Slocum said. “That’s a team that just manhandled us down there.”

“Physicality and defense and rebounding the basketball is what they do well.”

For the Panthers the 73 points scored by the Penguins was the most Pitt allowed to an opponent in a single game this season, and the first time Pitt allowed a team to score more than 70. 

“They scored 73 points, that’s obviously disappointing to me,” Dixon said. “We’ve gotta improve defensively, I’ve been saying that.”