PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh couldn't miss a shot in the first half, and then for a significant stretch in the second half the Panthers couldn't make a shot.
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Whether their shots were falling or not on Saturday, the No. 11 Panthers did not let up on defense in their 85-68 win over Oklahoma State.
It's a lesson Sean Sutton hopes his young Cowboys picked up, and one that undefeated Pitt's point guard was preaching after the game.
"If we make mistakes on offense we can't compound it by making mistakes on defense,” junior Levance Fields said.
OSU got off to a solid start on both sides of the ball Saturday and trailed by just one point with about 10 minutes to play in the first half. But the Cowboys had a 6½-minute lapse at the end of the half where they were outscored 20-5, giving Pitt a 49-31 halftime lead.
"Good teams seize that momentum,” Sutton said. "That's what veteran teams do. Our team's still young and trying to learn some of those things.
On the bright side, Sutton said, the Cowboys (5-4) did not fold the way they did against Marquette in Maui.
"I thought our guys really competed the whole game,” Sutton said. "Against Marquette we really just rolled over and laid down. I think this is a sign of maturity. We've got to play smarter; we've got to play better defense. We can't give up those kinds of runs on the road. But you take away that six-minute stretch and we played them pretty tough.”
After shooting an incredible 68 percent from the floor in the first half, Pitt scored just one field goal in the first 8½ minutes of the second half and OSU cut the lead to seven. But the Cowboys couldn't get out of the hole, and as Pitt got its shooting back on track the lead swelled back to 19.
"We shot it really well,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "We defended some things very well.”
Specifically, the Panthers (10-0) defended OSU freshman James Anderson very well. Anderson did not reach double digits for the first time this season as Mike Cook and Gilbert Brown held Anderson to eight points on 2-of-8 shooting.
Pitt's Sam Young said the plan with Anderson was to prevent him from catching and shooting, and not fall for his jab step.
"We kind of settled the jab step, not backing off him,” Young said. "We knew he liked to catch and shoot. We had good pressure on him.”
Junior Terrel Harris and senior Marcus Dove stepped up their scoring. Dove led OSU with 17 points and Harris had 16 points and nine rebounds. Rebounding was a bright spot for the Cowboys, who had 35 boards to Pitt's 30. That was despite 6-foot-7, 265-pound inside force DeJuan Blair, who led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Sutton frequently substituted his big men, minus suspended freshman Martavius Adams, but OSU didn't have an answer for the big freshman.
"DeJuan, he was way too physical and way too big for their guys,” Young said.
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OSU basketball notebook 12/16/2007 Off-day for Anderson Freshman James Anderson went into Saturday's game averaging 20.8 points, but Pitt held the forward to single-digit scoring for the...
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