Pittsburgh, Pa. – As the Pitt football team was in South Florida securing their bowl game bid in its 27-3, the men’s basketball team had business to take care of back at the Peterson Events Center. After cruising past Howard on Tuesday night, Pitt welcomed Detroit University to the Pete.
Just like Michigan gave the Panthers their first real test of the season last week, this Michigan team showed exactly whey they were picked to finish second in the Horizon League after winning the conference last year. Fortunately for Pitt, they were able to walk away with a 74-61 victory.
In the early going, Pitt jumped out of the gates with an 8-2 lead. After Detroit switched to a 2-3 zone, the Titans went on a 13-0 run as the Panthers were having trouble breaking the Titans defense.
“We’re not good enough against the zone right now,” Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon said. “Most teams aren’t, but we’re going to get better at it. Our big guys are struggling against the zone and I’ve got to do a better job at coaching them and getting them in the right place. That’s something I know and I’m aware of and we’re going to work at it hard.”
Giving Pitt fits in the first half was Ray McCallum. For much of the night, at least the first 20 minutes, McCallum proved to be the best player on the floor — not just for Detroit either — as he scored 17 in the first half.
“McCallum is as good as anyone in the country,” Dixon said. “He got going early.”
Detroit Coach Ray McCallum Sr. stressed the importance of his team getting off to a hot start.
“I thought it was very important that we get out to a great start,” McCallum Sr. said. “I’m really proud of the effort my guys gave them in the first half.”
To keep the Panthers in it, senior guard Tray Woodall scored 11 points of his own including going 3-4 from beyond the arc to keep the Detroit lead to a reachable eight points going into the break.
“I wanted to try to pick the team up,” Woodall said. “It’s usually not my scoring, but I just wanted to make sure I tried to knock down some threes and shots to be aggressive.”
Despite a second half turnover to start the half by freshman sensation James Robinson, Pitt came out firing in the second half to go on an early 6-0 run forcing McCallum Sr. to take a timeout. While it was Woodall in the first half keeping the Panthers in the fight, Robinson, Talib Zanna and Lamar Patterson stepped for the Panthers in the second half to secure the comeback.
“We just stayed with the same game plan, but on the court we were able to swing the ball a little bit faster,” Robinson said. “We were able to attack the gaps and hit some open shots in the second half.”
Despite their struggles at the line all season, Zanna hit 10-11 shots from the stripe en rout to his 16-point performance.
Perhaps the biggest moments of the game came when Robinson hit a three to put the Panthers up by nine at the 4:38 mark. Zanna followed up Robinson’s three with a blocked shot of Detroit big man Doug Anderson on one end only to get an “and one” on the other to bring the Peterson Events Center to its feet.
While Pitt solved the Detroit zone in the second half, it was their own defense — especially that on McCallum — that won them the game in the second half.
“Personally, I didn’t do anything different,” Robinson said. “I think Cam Wright stepped up big time in the second half. He contained him. In the end of the day, it’s a team effort, but I think Cam really stepped up in the second half and was playing really good defense on him.”
When asked if it was to give Detroit a different look as to who was guarding him in the second half, Robinson said the answer was easy.
“Cam was playing better defense than I was tonight,” Robinson said. “That was working so that’s what we worked with.”
Woodall added that the team came out with much more intensity and wanted everyone to be aware more defensively.
For the elder McCallum, he felt it was the switch of the Pitt defender that slowed down his son in the second half.
“They wanted to give him special attention. Robinson had the assignment to chase him. He did a great job,” McCallum Sr. said. “Pitt is such a great help defensive team. They do a great job of slowing down the dribbler and making him work all night to adjust. I think it kind of wore him [Ray] down in the second half. It was tough for us to find other guys to score.”
With the win, the Panthers (7-1) pushed their home record to 170-19 all-time at the Pete and won their 1,500 game in team history. For the opposing coach, McCallum Sr. said he thinks they’ll have many more to come this year on their way to the NCAA Tournament.
“I think they’re a NCAA Tournament team,” McCallum Sr. said. “I really do.”
Photo Credits: University of Pittsburgh
