Short-Handed Pitt Starts Fast, Rolls Past Eastern Michigan in Non-Conference Showdown
PITTSBURGH — On a night in which Pitt was missing its leading scorer, the Panthers raced out to their best offensive start of the season which helped them cruise past Eastern Michigan, 78-66.
Prior to the game, Pitt announced that starting guard Brandin Cummings would miss the game due to a lower-body injury. Cummings was the Panthers leading scorer through the team’s first two games as he averaged 18.5 points per game.
Eastern Michigan jumped on Pitt early and made its first two shots of the game to gain a 4-0 lead. That would become the Eagles’ largest, and only, lead of the night as the Panthers responded with a 27-6 run that put them ahead for good.
Following the Eagles’ first two buckets, the Panthers started their lengthy scoring run with threes by their two freshman starters, Omari Witherspoon and Roman Siulepa.
The Panthers led 21-10 by the time that the under-12 timeout rolled around and were 9-of-14 from the field and 3-of-5 from behind the arc.
Another stoppage in play ensued shortly after due to the Panthers’ relentless offensive success. The Eagles called a timeout at the 10:10 mark of the first half after Barry Dunning Jr. dimed Siulepa with a half-court pass that ended in a loud dunk.
The Panthers’ lead eventually grew to 37-19 at the 5:51 mark following a cutback layup by Cam Corhen, but then the Eagles landed a punch back and went on a 11-2 run which cut the deficit from 18 points to just nine.
Pitt finished the half out strong with two athletic finishes by Papa Kante and a towering floater by Damarco Minor which allowed them to regrow the lead to double digits as they led by the score of 45-32.
The Panthers did not let off of the gas pedal in the second half as they answered the Eagles shot-for-shot over the first 13 minutes which allowed the double-figure advantage to remain intact.
The Eagles managed to make it a 10-point game with about seven minutes left on a pair of free throws but a three by Dunning on the other end re-extended the Panthers lead to 13. The three for Dunning was his first of the season as he entered the night 0-of-7 from the field through the first two games.
Every time that the Eagles looked poised to make the game interesting in the second half, the Panthers hit a shot that cancelled out any momentum going the other way.
Such was the case when it was still just a 13-point game at the 3:35 mark of the second half as the Eagles forced the Panthers deep into the shot clock before Minor hit a step-back midrange jumper as the buzzer sounded.
Following Minor’s nifty finish, the Panthers went into cruise control over the final three minutes en route to the 12-point victory.
The Panthers had four players finish with 11 or more points in the win over the Eagles. Corhen paced the Panthers with a team-high 16 points despite fouling out late in the second half. Witherspoon added 15 in what ended up as his best game yet while Minor scored 12 and Siulepa ended with 11 points.
Pitt is next in action on Thursday when it visits rival West Virginia for the next installment of the Backyard Brawl. The Panthers have won the Brawl in the past two seasons but lost six in a row prior to that.
