On Saturday afternoon, Pitt Basketball defeated the visiting Sam Houston State Bearkats 110-78 to win its third straight game and improve to 10-2 on the season. The 110 points is the most a Pitt team has scored under Head Coach Jeff Capel.

The Panthers won the tip-off and didn’t look back, going on a 10-0 run in the first three minutes to kick off the game. The Bearkats never looked like a threat to upset Pitt, who were 18-point favorites heading into the matinee matchup.

Pitt led at half-time 52-40, largely due to the senior duo of forward Zack Austin and guard Ishmael Leggett. Austin had 11 points with three three-pointers, while Leggett had an extremely efficient 15 points, shooting 6-7 from the field. Pitt was sharp from behind the arc in the first half, sinking eight three-pointers on 17 attempts. Austin and Leggett both ended with 23 points.

Fighting back, Sam Houston State put together a solid offensive first-half but was outrebounded 17 to 12, along with lackluster free throw shooting, shooting at a 57.1% rate in the first half.

However, the second half wasn’t any prettier, as the Bearkats were only 1-10 from three and 7-13 from the charity stripe.

The Panthers have consistently dominated the boards this season, outrebounding every opponent they have defeated.

When Pitt's head coach Jeff Capel was asked how he can drill into his players’ minds the importance of gaining extra possessions from quality rebounding, he stated “Well the two games we’ve lost we’ve gotten outrebounded. That should tell us something, certainly as we move up in competition… that’s gonna be a point of emphasis for us.”

Sophomore guard Jaland Lowe also continued his excellent season with a season-high 11 assists, two of which came in the form of alley-oops to Cameron Cohern in the second half.

Cohern himself had a very solid performance, scoring 15 points on 5/7 from the field. His high volume of shots came as a surprise. This was the most shots the big man attempted since the Panthers faced the University of Wisconsin on November 24th.

What’s Next?

This game served as both the final game of the calendar year and the final non-conference game of the season for the Panthers.

They enjoy a long holiday break before beginning the grind that is conference play. After the break, the Panthers will face ACC newcomer Cal, for the first time since 2002, on January 1st at home to kick off the new year.

Pitt looks like they should be one of the top contenders in the ACC. Their 10 wins before the new year are tied for the most since the 2016-2017 season.