PITTSBURGH — Somewhere in between badly air-balled free throws, throwing passes to no one in particular and amid a number of other errors, one thing became mightily clear inside the Petersen Events Center on Friday:
Jeff Capel and the Pitt men’s basketball team have taken control of the Backyard Brawl hoops rivalry.
The evidence came in the form of the Panthers’ 86-62 victory against the Mountaineers, one that saw Pitt (4-0) race out to a 10-point cushion less than nine minutes into the game and then ballooned that up to 22 points by the half.
“Obviously we didn’t come out and play the way we wanted to,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “Pitt got going early and got a little confidence. I thought we had some decent looks early that didn’t go down. We just never could get any traction to kind of claw back into it.”
Pitt’s 24-point win was its largest against the Mountaineers since winning by 36 in 2003.
This all comes on the heels of Pitt’s 80-63 domination in Morgantown last season. That came with the Mountaineers still in transition after former coach Bob Huggins’ resignation and then Pitt’s Blake Hinson went on a long-range shooting barrage.
Maybe the Mountaineers (2-1) are still in transition with DeVries, too, with him taking over as WVU’s head coach this season. He spent most of the second half with his arms crossed and watching with a look of pure irritation.
That was not the look for Capel, once on the hot seat in Pittsburgh, but no longer.
“We understood what they wanted to do against us,” Capel said. “We knew they wanted to get into the gaps. We were prepared for it. Our guys were dialed up from the beginning.”
The Panthers dominated in all key areas, beginning on the boards, where Pitt had more rebounds at halftime (24) than the Mountaineers had points (22).
At the end, Pitt’s advantage was 45-32.
“I don’t think it was a size issue tonight,” DeVries said of WVU’s lack of rebounding. “They end up with a lot of defensive rebounds, because we had a lot of misses for them to get.”
We then move to shooting, where the Mountaineers were held to 38.7% from the field and were held to just six 3-pointers.
That doesn’t exactly tell the whole story on how frustrating this night was for the Mountaineers’ offense.
The lowlights include forward forward Toby Okani throwing up two airballs at the foul line, both of them falling a foot short of the rim.
Starting center Amani Hansberry battled foul trouble the entire game and couldn’t get out of his own way. He fouled out with 10 minutes remaining in the game after just having been inserted back into the lineup.
He finished with two points and three rebounds.
WVU’s leading scorer, Tucker DeVries, wasn’t far behind. He fouled out with 4:20 left and had his worst game of his young WVU career, finishing with just six points on 2 of 10 shooting.
“We got punched in the mouth tonight,” said WVU point guard Javon Small, who finished with 12 points. “We didn’t respond.”
Meanwhile, Pitt was led by guard Damian Dunn, who finished with 23 points and four 3-pointers, while Ishmael Leggett added 15.
Pitt forward Guillermo Diaz Graham added a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Notes
** This was Pitt’s first victory against WVU inside the Petersen Events Center since Feb. 24, 2011. The Mountaineers had won four in a row in Pittsburgh.
WVU is 5-8 all-time inside the Pete.
** Tucker DeVries saw his streak of scoring in double figures end at 33 consecutive games.
** WVU guard Jayden Stone missed his third game with an upper-body injury.
** Pitt connected on 10 3-pointers, a season high.
