Bobcats can't match up with Panthers
PITTSBURGH — Gilbert Brown made Pitt a better team from the first minute he returned to the floor. Now the Panthers, finally at full strength for the first time this season, will find out how good they are.
Ashton Gibbs scored 15 points and Pittsburgh jumped out to a 17-point lead in the first 8Z\x minutes before easing to a 74-49 victory over Ohio on Tuesday night, the Panthers' final game before starting Big East play.
Pittsburgh (10-2) led 4-3 with 90 seconds gone before going on a 16-0 run over the next seven minutes, stretching its lead to 20-3. Ohio (7-4) had won three in a row, only to miss 14 of its first 15 shots.
The Bobcats tried mounting a comeback, outscoring Pitt 19-10 to get to within 30-22, but the Panthers scored eight of the final 10 points to close the half with a 38-24 lead. The Panthers held leads in the 20-point range throughout the second half.
Brown, Pitt's most experienced player but academically ineligible the first semester, played for the first time this season and made all four of his shots while scoring 11 points in 18 minutes.
The 6-foot-6 Brown, a junior who started two seasons ago, couldn't practice with Pitt until semester finals ended late last week.
Brown was the top player off the bench as the Panthers went 31-5 last season, averaging 5.4 points and 3.1 rebounds. The academic layoff cost him the No. 11 he previously wore, as freshman Dante Taylor now wears that number and Brown is No. 5. Brown also is at a different position, power forward rather than small forward.
"We're expecting big things from him," Gibbs said.
With Brown and guard Jermaine Dixon back — Dixon missed eight games while recovering from a twice-broken right foot — Pitt has its full team together. Dixon scored 14 points and held Ohio's top scorer, D.J. Cooper to five points on 1 of 14 shooting.
Pitt shot 55.8 percent (29 of 52) while winning its 46th consecutive nonconference home game and extending its Petersen Events Center winning streak to 29 games.
