The Pittsburgh Panthers defeated the Detroit Titans Saturday night 74 - 61 in what was a much closer game despite what the scoreboard says. Pitt trailed at halftime by 8 pts and at times by a margin of 12. Pitt again faced a team with outstanding guard play, this time it came in the form of junior and coaches son Ray McCallum. McCallum put up 24 pts and added 7 rebounds. Despite Pitt again struggling in the first half, the 10th ranked shooting team came out of the halftime break determined to retake the lead.
[caption id="attachment_21" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Talib Zanna goes up for a dunk against Detroit Saturday night. photo courtesy of (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)"]
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Senior PG Tray Woodall contributed 14 points while Junior F Talib Zanna, Pitts leading scorer, added 16 in Pitts come from behind victory. As expected Detroit came out in a 2-3 zone which has given Pitt trouble all season long. 7 ft C Steven Adams has yet to become a dominant force in the paint for the Panthers and as long as that continues expect to see Pitt struggling against any form of zone defense. However Talib Zanna continues to excel against any form of defense, the Junior from Nigeria is by and far having his best season as a Pittsburgh Panther. Zanna is leading the team in ppg and rpg with 13.9 and 5.9 respectively through 8 games, he also shooting better than 64% from the field and has added a mid-range shot to his game.
Saturday's game marks the 2nd time this season that Pitt was faced with coming back from a double digit deficit. Both instances Pitt has been successful, and not to take anything away from those 2 teams but they aren't big time opponents. Once Big East play begins Pitt may be in for a rude awakening if they continue to allow teams to jump out ahead of them. In the meantime, however, Pitt is showing amazing heart and determination, when most teams would fold under this much pressure early in the season.
Jamie Dixon and the Panthers continue their astounding performance in non-conference play in the month of December at the Petersen Events Center as they improved their record to 44-1. Next on the schedule is crosstown rival Duquesne in what is called the City Game to be played at the new Consol Energy Center, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Duquesne is led by senior G Sean Johnson who is averaging 11 pts a game, and Senior F Andre Marhold who's grabbing almost 6 rebounds a game. Both Pitt and Duquesne are young teams with something to prove and should be another great game between the 2 of them Wednesday night.
notes: Pitt ranks 2nd in the nation in assists per game with 19.3 also 10th in FG% and 1st in the Big East as they are shooting 50.9%
Zach Helbling is a senior writer for chatsports.com who writes about Pittsburgh teams including Pirates, Steelers, Panthers, and Penguins. He works full time as a FedEx driver in the Pittsburgh area and can be reached directly at zhelbling@chatsports.com or follow him on twitter @DJZachyzach.
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