WVU Sports

By John Grupp,

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Two teams headed in different directions kept going that way Wednesday night.

No. 6 West Virginia defeated No. 22 Pitt, 70-51, for its most lopsided victory over the Panthers in more than three decades.

Pitt (16-6, 6-4), losers of four of its past five, is stuck in the worst stretch since it went 1-4 from Jan. 29-Feb. 11, 2001, in then-coach Ben Howland’s first season.

“Obviously, I’m not happy with how we played,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “West Virginia deserved to win. We have to move past this game and get ready for the next one.”

In front of the third-largest crowd at WVU Coliseum history (15,419), Pitt never led — the second consecutive game the Panthers trailed wire-to-wire — and suffered its worst loss in the basketball version of the Backyard Brawl in 33 years.

West Virginia (18-3, 7-2), which has matched its highest ranking in 28 years, beat Pitt for only the sixth time in their past 18 meetings.

West Virginia outscored Pitt, 27-9, down the stretch to break open what had been a tight game between the two bitter rivals. Down, 43-41, with 12 minutes to play, Pitt missed 14 of its next 15 shots.

“It hard to believe a game can turn that quick,” Dixon said. “It’s a two-point game with 12 minutes left and then how it ended …”

Jermaine Dixon, back in the lineup after missing Sunday’s game at USF with an ankle injury, scored a team-high 13 points for Pitt. Ashton Gibbs went 2 for 13 from the field with 11 points and Gary McGhee was 3 of 11 from the field — missing mostly easy layups — for nine points.

Freshman J.J. Richardson scored nine points off the bench but he was the lone bright spot for the Panthers, who shot 20 percent in the second half and had only two field goals and 10 points in the final 12:50 of the game.

Starting guard Brad Wanamaker and top reserve Gilbert Brown, one game after scoring a career-high 25 points against USF, didn’t score.

“It was good defense by them, and poor execution by us,” Gibbs said. “It came down to rebounding and second-chance points.”

Da’Sean Butler scored 18 points, and Kevin Jones chipped in 16 for West Virginia, which has won five in a row. Devin Ebanks, a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward, had six points and a game-high 16 rebounds, as the Mountaineers outrebounded Pitt, 45-31. Ebanks also helped harass Gibbs into a 2 for 13 shooting effort.

“Devin was good,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “He was really good. I thought this was one of Devin’s better games.”

West Virginia used a 19-6 run to take control after Pitt had cut the deficit to 43-41 with 13 minutes to play. Pitt missed nine shots in a row, and by the time Jermaine Dixon hit a jumper with 4:47 to play, West Virginia led, 58-47.

The game was delayed for about five minutes with 5:14 to play after some pushing and shoving under the basket. Pitt assistant coach Tom Herrion was hit on the left side of his face with a coin thrown out of the stands. West Virginia was charged with a technical.

“He’s alright,” coach Dixon said of Herrion. “We’re not going to make a big deal out of it. It was an unfortunate incident, but I don’t think any team was at fault. I don’t want one person’s action to reflect on an entire university.”

Pitt trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, but the Panthers switched to a 2-3 zone defense and closed the gap. Down, 26-15, after Jones hit a 3-pointer, Pitt went on a 9-0 run capped by Gibbs’ 3-pointer to pull Pitt to within 26-24 with 3:30 to play in the first half.

The zone defense seemed to confuse the Mountaineers, who managed only six points during a nine-minute span.

The teams traded baskets with West Virginia taking a 34-28 lead into the locker room on Wellington Smith’s buzzer-beating tip-in.

The two teams will meet again on Feb. 12 at Petersen Events Center.

Read More – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.