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Nov. 17, 2008
PITTSBURGH (AP)-- Jermaine Dixon hit two 3-pointers while scoring nine points during No. 6 Pittsburgh's 16-2 run to start the second half and the Panthers went on to an 82-53 victory over Miami (Ohio) on Monday night.
Levance Fields had 12 points and a career-high 12 assists and Sam Young and Dixon scored 14 points each as Pittsburgh (2-0) avoided the tight game that former Panthers coach Ben Howland's No. 4 UCLA Bruins had against Miami (1-2) five nights before. Miami led by five points late before losing 64-59.
Pitt took a 9-0 lead in the opening 4 1/2 minutes, saw its lead trimmed to as few as three points late in the first half, then opened up a 51-32 lead when Dixon finished off the second-half run with a steal and drive for a three-point play. Dixon hit a 3-pointer that started the half and another that made it 45-32.
Dixon, a 6-foot-3 junior college transfer and the brother of former Maryland star Juan Dixon, is starting because small forward Gilbert Brown is sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot.
DeJuan Blair had 10 points and nine rebounds and Tyrell Biggs added 10 points for Pitt, which shot 59.3 percent (32-of-54) to Miami's 31 percent (18-of-58).
Kenny Hayes scored 18 points and Tyler Dierkers had 12 for Miami.
With Pitt's man-to-man defense shutting down leading scorer Michael Bramos, Miami couldn't mount a run to get back into its first game against Pitt in 40 years.
Bramos, averaging 17.5 points and coming off a 22-point game against UCLA, missed all six of his shots and didn't score until making two free throws for his only points with 11:36 remaining and Pitt up by 20.
Despite the presence of Ben Roethlisberger, a former Miami quarterback who now plays for the Steelers, Pitt won a school-record 30th consecutive nonconference home game and its 79th in its last 80. Pitt had lost its last five to Miami, but all those games were played in the 1960s.
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Miami coach Charlie Coles was hoping the familiarity between the UCLA and Pitt systems would be helpful -- much of Howland's system was retained by Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, his former assistant -- but the RedHawks never solved Pitt's smothering defense.
The RedHawks' frustration became evident early in the second half when they began rushing shots in an attempt to get back into the game, with Bramos once throwing up an off-balance 3-pointer that missed by several feet. The Panthers weren't appreciably taller -- Miami had two starters larger than the 6-7 Blair -- but they were more physical inside.
Pitt is 26-0 in November since Dixon was hired to start the 2003-04 season.
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