PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh hoped Sunday's game against Auburn would offer a chance to prove themselves against a quality opponent from a strong conference.

By the looks of the 78-41 Panthers' victory, the team accomplished only half its goal. Pitt got a win against a Southeastern Conference team — but it might be a stretch to call the Tigers a challenge.

"From the time the tip went up," Auburn coach Jeff Lebo said. "It was men (against) boys, really."

Carl Krauser had 14 points as Pittsburgh opened up an early lead and ran away from a rebuilding Auburn team that started four freshmen.

"Throughout, I thought we executed and did what we tried to do," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "I was just happy with the way we came out defensively from the start and showed unselfishness and intensity."

Pitt (5-0) opened up against four teams from lesser conferences — St. Peter's, Robert Morris, Maine and St. Francis (N.Y). But Auburn (3-2), the preseason consensus for last place in the Southeastern Conference's Western Division, provided less resistance than any team Pitt has played.

"A lot of guys said this was going to be our first real test," said Pitt guard Ronald Ramon, who had eight points and a career-high eight assists. "We took that seriously and came out and played hard."

The Tigers had only four points 13 minutes into the game as Pitt began the contest on a 26-4 run. After a Korvotney Barber layup a little more than two minutes into the game, the Tigers went a span of 10:59 without scoring until a Frank Tolbert putback with 6:49 to play in the half.

"We didn't pay attention to (the scoring drought)," Krauser said. "Coach was stressing playing defense. We wanted to show him we could play 40 minutes of hard defense."

Auburn made only two of its first 12 shots and had nine turnovers over that span. The Tigers missed their first 10 free throws and trailed 39-15 at halftime.

Pitt, which led by as many as 48 with 7:47 to play, began the second half on a 9-0 run and also had runs of 11-3 and 12-0 after halftime.

Auburn scored 13 of the final 16 points to avoid suffering the largest margin of defeat at the Petersen Events Center. The 41 points was the least scored by Auburn since March 3, 1982, in a 38-36 overtime victory against Mississippi State.

Aaron Gray and Levance Fields added 10 points each for the Panthers, who shot 52 percent from the field and improved to 33-1 against non-conference opponents at the Petersen Events Center.

Ronny LeMelle's 16 points paced Auburn, which shot 40 percent from the field and 20 percent from the free-throw line. The Tigers were outrebounded 41-20.

"We didn't have anything in this game," Lebo said. "I thought Pitt played awfully well tonight. You could see with a young team out there, we were physically dominated at every spot."