PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – West Virginia hit Pitt hard on its first possession. Even when the Mountaineers did that, the Panthers scored in what ended up a 86-62 win in the 191st Backyard Brawl Friday night. It was Pitt’s largest margin of victory in the series since 2003.
“Really, really proud of our performance, especially on the defensive end,” said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel. “I thought our guys were incredibly locked in right from the beginning.”
On West Virginia’s first made bucket, Amani Hansberry’s off-hand went right into the face of Guillermo Diaz Graham for a flagrant foul, while Diaz Graham was being looked at, Zach Austin made a pair of free throws. Soon after, Pitt would go on a 15-2 run hitting 6 of 15 three-pointers in the first 20 minutes. Panthers put an exclamation point on the first half with a steal as Jaland Lowe led the fast-break throwing an alley oop to Damian Dunn to take a 22-point lead at the break.
Panthers would never trail by fewer than 22 points the rest of the game in winning a second straight meeting with West Virginia. They held WVU to 38% FG (33% 1st half), 21% from 3 (15% 1st half) and allowed only five offensive rebounds.
“Our guys understood there was a different energy in the building,” Capel said. “We are playing against a rival from a really good conference. This was a big-time game for us, an important game.”
Guillermo tough
Diaz Graham would return to the game minutes after absorbing the flagrant foul and getting a couple of stitches.
“I’m not going to lie, it got me fired up,” Diaz-Graham said. “When I came back, I was ready to kill. For real. I went in there, I was cussing and I was mad. When I came back, I was ready.”
He had a moment in the first half where he fought for an offensive rebound and scored on the put back. It caused Pitt assistant Jason Capel to jump in the air with both fists clenched encouraging the junior forward to continue to hit the glass. A few possessions later, Diaz Graham would do the same thing with a similar reaction from the bench.
“I got two rebounds, they let me score,” Diaz Graham said. “Thank you for that.”
“This is my first time,” Dunn said of seeing Diaz Graham fired up. “We were just talking in the back, maybe we have to punch him in the mouth or something every game to get him fired up.”
It was Guillermo’s second career double-double finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Dunn deal
All of his four games since transferring from Houston have been in double figures at Pitt. Again, Damian Dunn impressed with a Panthers career-high 23 points on 7-12 shooting, 4-7 from three and 5-7 free throws. The Panthers graduate student has yet to have a game where he shot under 50% from the floor.
“I just rolled off momentum,” Dunn said. “Just trusted my teammates to put him in position to make plays. Competing was just what it was, being assertive and aggressive and knowing my assignment defensively and letting that carry over offensively to make big plays.”
“He’s strong,” said West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries. “He can score at all three levels. Just a tough matchup overall. What the best way to take him out of what he does when he can do all things pretty well.”
“I don’t think he realizes that he got better last year because it didn’t show up in scoring,” Capel said. “His scoring average went down a lot from what it was at Temple, but he became a better basketball player from that culture (at Houston).”
“I’m not worried about Dame scoring. I think we can unlock that part of his game that’s always been there. I was impressed the challenge that he took to guard that kid. I thought he did an unbelievable job of doing that.”
Tuckered
West Virginia’s Tucker DeVries had scored in double figures in 33 straight games. He was an Honorable Mention All-American last year at Drake. The son of the head coach fouled out with four points.
“We had an awareness for DeVries and Dame (Damian Dunn), Ish (Ishmael Leggett), those were the two primary guys on them and they really did an unbelievable job containing a really, really good scorer,” Capel said.
“Just to stay on his hip, just to be disciplined and not fall for shot fakes,” Dunn said, adding he did a lot of extra film work. “Just chase him around and make him take contested twos. Just always be attached.”
Notes
Up Next
Panthers host VMI at 7p on Monday before five straight games on the road, all against power conferences. Voice of the Panthers Bill Hillgrove and Curtis Aiken have pregame start at 6:30p.