St. John's played Pitt extremely tough in the first half, but Pitt was able to overcome a slow start for a 90-67 win at the Pete. Pitt had a five point lead, but it could just as easily been a five point deficit. I'll have more observations tomorrow, but here are a few:
1. Really down games by Young and Biggs were overcome by strong games by Dixon (career high 17 points) and Blair (23 points / 15 rebounds).
2. A few statistical anomalies including four turnovers by Fields and 82% FT shooting by Blair.
3. The thing that kept them alive in the first half was getting all of those turnovers. St. John's ended the game with a whopping 24 - that really helped Pitt take control.
4. Wanamaker is really starting to come into his own. Frankly, even though he was a freshman, he looked so lost at times last year that I thought he might be buried on the bench for the rest of his Pitt career or even a transfer candidate. But his play has been really solid and he's not only now a strong bench player, he could start for lesser teams in my opinion.
5. I always panic when I see starters still in there late in the game. With about three minutes left and a 23 point lead our starters were still in. I would really have liked to see them come out at about the 5 minute mark. I understand if the lead starts to evaporate, they might have to come back in. But really, it's starting to look like an injury is one of the few things that could derail this team.
All in all a 23-point win over a conference foe after an 8-game layoff - can't argue with that.
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