Pitt Escapes Another Slow Start, Defeats Longwood 78-60
PITTSBURGH — Pitt (2-0) looked to break the pattern of slow offensive starts when they welcomed Longwood (1-1) to the Petersen Events Center on Friday night. Despite walking away with a 78-60 victory, that trend continued as the Panthers relied on an efficient second half to pull away from the Lancers.
The Panthers entered halftime with a 33-28 lead but struggled to find any offensive success outside of Brandin Cummings, Damarco Minor and Roman Siulepa. The three of them combined to shoot 7-of-12 in the first half while the rest of the team was 1-of-11 at the break.
While Siulepa only scored once more in the second half, it was the timely second-half threes by Cummings and Minor that helped Pitt finally pull away from Longwood in the 18-point victory.
The Panthers opened up with threes by Omari Witherspoon and Siulepa to start the game as they jumped out to a quick 6-3 lead but the Lancers answered with a small run to even the score out at 7-7.
After Witherspoon and Siulepa made two of the Panthers’ first four shot attempts, the offense for the Panthers went cold as they were just 2-of-8 from the field at the first media stoppage.
Siulepa went onto score the five of the next seven points for the Panthers and was the only bright spot early on for Pitt. After Damarco Minor followed up Siulepa’s outburst with his first three of the evening, the Panthers held a 17-11 lead midway through the opening half.
The Panthers would then go nearly seven minutes of game time without a field goal. The scoring drought allowed the Lancers to claw back and tie the game at 23-23.
After a pair of free throws by Brandin Cummings gave the Panthers the lead back, he followed it up with a three which marked the first Panthers’ field goal since the 9:13 mark of the first half. The Panthers used that momentum to open up a 10-0 run which gave them their biggest lead of the half.
After Minor’s second three of the half put the Panthers up by 10 points, the Lancers cut the score to 33-28 by halftime on a three by Alphonzo Billups III and a layup by Johan Nziemi.
The Lancers closed the first half on a 5-0 run and continued it once the second half started as they eventually matched the Panthers’ 10-0 run with one of their own which tied the game at 33-33 early in the closing period.
Minor ended the run with his third triple of the game but two consecutive buckets by Nziemi put the Lancers up by one just before Minor hit his fourth and final three-pointer of the game. Minor’s three came just before the first media stoppage of the second half and put the Panthers back ahead of the Lancers.
In total, the Lancers went on a 14-3 lead between the two halves which erased a once 10-point Panthers’ advantage.
Following the media stoppage, the Panthers started to rebuild the lead, largely due to their ability to knock down deep threes as Cummings hit one after two offensive rebounds and then Nojus Indrusaitis followed up a few possessions later with a deep three of his own.
Despite the newfound success on offense, the Panthers defense struggled at containing Nziemi as he scored 10 second-half points which kept the Lancers within striking distance for most of the half.
The Panthers finally started to pull away after a 6-0 run in which Papa Kante threw down a dunk and then was fouled as he made a layup on the ensuing possession. At that point, the Panthers made six of their last eight shots from the field which helped them lead by the score of 57-49 at the under-eight timeout.
The Panthers managed to close out the final eight or so minutes of the game on a 21-11 run which helped clinch the 78-60 victory.
Minor and Cummings paced Pitt in the victory with 23 and 19 points, respectively. The guard duo managed those point totals on a combined 18 shots. Siulepa played his best game to date as he finished as the team’s third leading scorer with 12 points, 10 of which came in the first half.
Pitt continues its non-conference schedule on Monday evening when they host Eastern Michigan at the Pete.
