Panthers Overcome Sluggish First Half to Top Prairie View
12/3/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Isaac Hawkins |
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Isaac Hawkins overpowered smaller and painfully inexperienced Prairie View A&M for 22 points and 17 rebounds, and No. 20 Pittsburgh shrugged off a sluggish first half to win 78-64 Thursday night.
The Panthers (7-1), back in the Top 25 for the first time since 1993, overcame an off-night by scoring star Vonteego Cummings to rebound from a 35-point loss to No. 2 Maryland in the Puerto Rico Shootout finals.
Cummings, averaging 22.2 points and the leader of Pitt's upset wins last week over Xavier and Kentucky, was held to 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting and didn't score in the second half until 2:52 remained.
But it didn't matter, even on a night when Pittsburgh shot only 32.6 percent in the first half, 34.9 percent overall and was 6-of-29 from 3-point range despite breezing to early leads of 16-7 and 23-10.
Jocquinn Arch scored 23 points for Prairie View (0-5), a surprise NCAA qualifier last season but one of the nation's youngest teams this season with eight freshmen among its top 12 players.
Prairie View stayed much closer than it did in a recent 46-point loss to Tulane, closing to 23-21 midway through the first half and to 55-48 with 11 minutes remaining.
But, in a game matching two teams nicknamed Panthers, Prairie View couldn't keep up on the boards as Pitt held a 60-43 rebounding edge, with Ricardo Greer adding 12 rebounds.
Continuing its best start in Ralph Willard's five seasons as coach, Pittsburgh finally pulled away with a 10-0 run midway through the second half started by Hawkins' dunk and finished by his jumper that made it 65-48.
But it was likely the last easy game in a while for Pitt, which plays Tennessee, No. 25 St. John's and No. 1 Connecticut in the next nine days and has three Big East Conference games before New Year's.
By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer