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No. 1 Pitt Pulls Away From USF

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By TONY DeFAZIO

Tribune correspondent

Published: January 15, 2009

PITTSBURGH - Despite a valiant effort and big games by their big guns, South Florida fell to No. 1 Pitt 75-62 at the Petersen Events Center on Wednesday night.

Dominique Jones and Gus Gilchrist carried the Bulls with 22 points apiece, and Chris Howard added 13.

The Panthers were led by center DeJuan Blair's 13 points and 18 rebounds. Tyrell Biggs scored 16 points, Sam Young added 14 and Levance Fields had 11 to go with a career-high 13 assists for Pitt.

Things went south for the Bulls almost as soon as they walked out of their Pittsburgh hotel. Greeted by 17-degree weather and an accompanying snowfall, what is normally a 2.5-mile, 10-minute trip to the arena took 90 minutes, finally getting the Bulls to the Pitt campus just minutes before the scheduled 7 p.m. tip-off.

But thanks largely to the efforts of Jones and Gilchrist, who combined to score their team's first 18 points, USF (6-10, 1-3 Big East) stayed within striking distance the entire first half, tying the game at 18 midway through the period and again at 30 with 41/2 minutes left. Pitt (16-0, 4-0) led 41-37 at the break.

South Florida shot lights-out in the first 20 minutes, hitting 12 of 21 shots from the field and five of eight from beyond the arc. The Bulls shot 47.7 percent overall (21-of-44) and 50 percent from 3-point range (7-of-14).

"If you'd have told me before the game we were going to shoot 48 percent, and 50 percent from 3, I'd take it," USF coach Stan Heath said. "I just would never have thought we'd lose by 13."

Pitt used a 19-10 second-half run to open a 60-47 lead at the 11-minute mark, however, and the Panthers never looked back.

Gilchrist and Jones combined to shoot 15 of 25 from the floor.

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