Pitt destroyed poor Binghamton, 79-53, Friday night at Petersen Events Center — and, man, it must have felt good for these Panthers.
Words could explain. But I'm just going to leave this here instead, sound and all, so you get the full audiovisual impact:
Hear 'em? See 'em?
No, not the two players actually making the play on the court — that's KJ Marshall driving and missing and Samson George cleaning up the glass for two — but all those more familiar faces on the bench.
Au'Diese Toney is hopping out of his shoes. Xavier Johnson slides into his seat with a grin stretching to the Mon. Ryan Murphy whips his towel, and Justin Champagnie looks both ways before crossing the threshold to post-victory bliss.
It was exactly what this young Panthers squad needed: A blowout over an inferior opponent.
So, of course, I had to lead the postgame press conference with that:
Wait, what?
That was so much more measured and calculated. I'd even say that was a ... reasonable reaction, nothing at all like the enthusiasm I watched unfold as the game ticked to its end. And that response, from the freshman Champagnie no less, was perfect.
All he did in this game was put up a team-high 14 points, 10 rebounds, a block and two steals in 30 minutes of play. He sliced and diced Binghamton's zone all night, and the opposition had no answers. Making things even sweeter for Champagnie, he did all this after scoring just nine points combined in his last three games.
He had eight of those in Pitt's last contest, a win against Northern Illinois.
So, yeah. This one was necessary for him.
"It's kind of hard [being in a slump] because then it's like, you keep missing and you get in your head. You lose your confidence, but you just gotta run with it," Champagnie said. " ... For the past week, I was in the gym with coach. I just kept shooting just to get my confidence back. I just [had] to see a couple of them go in and build it back up."
That type of composure from a freshman is rare, and it becomes particularly intriguing when you consider he did his work against a zone defense from Binghamton on the night. The zone may not force as much pressure up front, but it requires a calculated, precise attack plan — with and without the ball — and Champagnie displayed both Friday night.
"One of the things a zone can do is that it can slow you down and make you think," Jeff Capel was saying after the game.
Usually, that's when a freshman will find himself in trouble. The college game is still new, the moment's bigger than it's ever been and now you have to process, to think and to decide immediately what that next move's going to be.
Champagnie, however, navigated the challenge beautifully.
"Justin, in high school, was more of a mid-range, around-the-basket slasher," Capel said. "That's who he was. We've tried to expand and get him to play a little bit more on the perimeter and to be comfortable shooting threes. We need to get him where he's making threes consistently now."
OK, let's ice this blowout victory with an X-factor among the talking points.
Pitt won by a billion, sure. They dominated the turnover battle, forcing 27 while generating just 11 of their own — nine of those in a mostly meaningless second half.
Four players — Champagnie, McGowens, Murphy and Toney — scored in double figures.
Noticeably absent there?
Yep. Johnson.
He finished with nine points on 3-for-6 shooting alongside four rebounds, six assists and three turnovers in 32 minutes. And he was smiling and loving every second of it.
Think that feels good for him, the star of the show who sometimes feels the weight of this team on his shoulders? That Pitt can win without a mammoth effort from their star point guard is a massive deal, one that Capel acknowledged after the game.
"One of the things that we talked to he and Trey, especially, about is that you need these other guys," Capel said. "There's a lot of attention on them because of what they did last year and their reputations as players, and that reputation was earned by how they played last year ... For us to be able to score 79 points tonight without him being in double figures — certainly it was good to see Ryan Murphy make some shots in the second half. So again, we're going to keep working. We're going to keep plugging away at this thing. Our guys have had really, really good attitudes up to this point."
In the end, this blowout win to move to 9-3 just before Christmas feels like the perfect gift to Capel and his squad.
"It was a good win for us heading into the holiday," Capel said. "I thought we did some good things in this game ... After the first four minutes of the first half, I thought we were really good for the rest of the half. I think at the under-16 timeout we had two turnovers. We had two at halftime. So we valued the ball. We got into a better rhythm offensively and we were able to create some offense from our defense."
• This game is exactly what Murphy needed, too.
After starting his season averaging 15.5 points per game through four, Murphy averaged just 7.7 points per game over the next seven. Even worse, he put up some sub-30-percent performances from three — his specialty — during that stretch, causing many to wonder when the sharp-shooting Murphy from the early goings of this season would reappear.
The answer came Friday night when Murphy did this:
Three. Steal. Two. Three more.
In all, Murphy finished with 11 points on 4-for-10 shooting, including 3 for 7 (43 percent) from deep to go along with two rebounds, two assists, two blocks and four steals.
"We just tell him he's got to get out of his own head. He's his biggest defender," Champagnie was saying when I asked him if he felt Murphy was breaking out of his own slump. "He can shoot over anybody he wants, but if he keeps getting in his head when he misses, he's going to be down on himself and he's not going to make it."
So what kind of advice do you give somebody with that mentality?
"Keep shooting," Champagnie and Toney replied in unison.
Yeah, that. Murphy does that, and this entire Pitt offense opens up. Not only will he put points on the board, he'll open lanes for others to work and he'll give the defense one more weapon to worry about each and every possession. Murphy's continued success is vital to Pitt's offense.
He's just gotta keep shooting.
• Besides Murphy, more of this is always welcome:
That's McGowens knocking down a three plus two more from Johnson. The star sophomore duo finished 4 for 9 (44 percent) combined from deep, a lethal clip for two players largely known for their driving and finishing at the rim. Add that wrinkle plus an on-target Murphy, and this Pitt team becomes a legitimate problem for opposing defenses.
• Hats off for Sam Sessoms on the other side. The 6-foot sophomore guard put up 23 points on 9 for 19 shooting (5 for 11 from three) while also contributing six rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal in 35 minutes. After averaging 17.8 points per game as a freshman, Sessoms is posting 19 a game in his second year with Binghamton — and all that success was certainly on display on this night.
"Sessoms is an, overall, just a great player," Toney was saying. "He's not, you don't speed him up. The game just comes to him. He lets the game come to him. He's just an overall player. He can shoot the ball good. He finds his teammates as well. But he's [one of those] types of players that makes whatever happen to win the game."
• Despite the score and all that Pitt dominance, I gotta say ... I feel like Pitt could've had even more in this one. Binghamton competed and scrapped — full credit to them — and the game rarely felt unfair.
... Except for this sequence:
Terrell Brown with the dehumanizing block. Johnson to Champagnie for the alley-oop at the other end to put Pitt up, 37-15, and extend their run to 32-6 in the first half. Those are just gaudy numbers, and they're perfectly captured in that five-second stretch.
• Overall, Capel was content with his team's defense, which he says has been good all year. However, there's one area in particular he sees the need for improvement:
"Where we can take a jump is, we have to defensive rebound," Capel said. "That's big, because when you do that, you take away second shots. Usually, second shots lead to something easy for them because it's a broken play, whether it's a basket right there or an open three-pointer."
Binghamton had 38 rebounds (15 offensive) in this one. For comparison, Pitt had 39 total and 17 offensive, near mirror images.
• The Panthers' 41 first-half points were the most of the season, as were the 79 total.
• The 27 turnovers forced? Also a season high.
• Murphy and Toney each set career highs with their four steals apiece.
• For the second straight game, Pitt's opposition sank just one free throw. Binghamton went 1 for 5 from the charity stripe in this game after Northern Illinois went 1 for 2 on Monday night here at the Pete.
• Pitt is now 17-4 under Capel when forcing the opposition to shoot below 40 percent from the field. Binghamton shot 39.3 percent (22 for 56) Friday night.
• With three blocks, Brown posted his 32nd game with two or more rejections, good for 125 in his career (sixth-best in Pitt history).
• Abdoul Karim Coulibaly registered a career-best nine points alongside two rebounds and a steal in 15 minutes of play.
• Capel had my favorite quote of the night when asked if the team's 9-3 record is better, worse or as-expected after 12 games:
"I didn't have a number because I never think about us losing," he responded. "But where we are as far as how we've progressed — I like where we are. We still have a ways to go. That's exciting to me, that we haven't hit a ceiling yet."
• Gerald Drumgoole, Jr. is still out with an ankle injury. His status is TBD, although Capel said after the game there is still hope he could return before the team's next game vs. Canisius. Here's his full response when I asked him about it:
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE STARTING LINEUPS
For Capel's Panthers:
Xavier Johnson, guard
Trey McGowens, guard
Justin Champagnie, guard
Au'diese Toney, forward
Eric Hamilton, forward
And for Dempsey's Bearcats:
Sam Sessoms, guard
Brenton Mills, guard
Hakon Hjalmarsson, guard
George Tinsley, forward
Pierre Sarr, forward
THE SCHEDULE
Pitt will enjoy another 10-day break for the holidays. They return Monday, Dec. 30, at noon to face Canisius at the Pete. Provided I don't overdose on prime rib over Christmas, I'll be there.
THE COVERAGE
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