Pittsburgh Defeats Marquette 89-81

Jan. 8, 2011

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Ashton Gibbs scored 19 points and Brad Wanamaker led a first-half surge in which No. 5 Pittsburgh rapidly opened up a 16-point lead, carrying the hot-shooting Panthers past Marquette 89-81 on Saturday.

Wanamaker scored 15 points and Gilbert Brown added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Panthers (15-1, 3-0 in Big East), who were tied at 26 before going on a 22-6 run lasting six minutes that put them ahead 48-32.

Darius Johnson-Odom scored 20 points, Dwight Buycks had 19 and Jimmy Butler 17 for Marquette (11-5, 2-1), which had four players in double figures yet still lost its fourth in a row against Pittsburgh in Big East play.

With Pitt shooting a season-high 60 percent, the Golden Eagles never could make a determined push to get back into a game in which the Panthers maintained double-digit leads throughout most of the second half. Pitt won its 18th in a row and 49th in its last 50 at home.

With Pitt's offense driven by 3-pointers for the second successive game, Gibbs and Wanamaker started the run with 3s. Gary McGhee and Wanamaker then converted three-point plays around a jumper from the wing by Wanamaker, who scored eight points during the surge.

Brown's 3-pointer and Dante Taylor's follow-up after three successive Pitt misses finished off the run before Marquette scored the final five points of the half.

Pitt, which usually relies on its defense and rebounding to win, made 10 of 18 shots from beyond the arc -- following up a 10 for 19 night during an 83-79 victory at Providence on Tuesday. Gibbs was held to 9 points in that game, but rebounded with his seventh game of 19 or more points this season.

Before using its outside shooting to beat Providence, Pitt won six times this season while being held to 5 baskets or fewer from beyond the arc.

Brown was 2 of 3 on 3s after going 5 of 6 against Providence and is 17 of 26 over his last seven games -- one reason that, so far, this is Jamie Dixon's highest-scoring team at Pittsburgh.

Pitt has never averaged more than 78.5 points per game during Dixon's eight seasons, and only once -- the DeJuan Blair and Sam Young team of 2008-09 -- has averaged more than 74.4 points. While this team has 15 more Big East games to play, the Panthers are averaging 81.2 points overall and 83.3 points in the conference.

The Panthers averaged 68.8 points last season, their lowest under Dixon.

Pitt is 143-11 at the Petersen Events Center, where Marquette is one of nine visiting teams to win in nine seasons. The Golden Eagles won there in 2007.