West Virginia dominates Pitt 68-53

West Virginia walked into the Petersen Events Center on Friday and completely dominated Pitt in all facets of the game. While the first half was close, it really came down to the second half. Pitt shot 3-of-25 from the field and were outscored 32-18. It was a lockdown effort by the West Virginia defense, and an abysmal offensive effort from Pitt.

West Virginia freshman center Oscar Tshibwe dominated the Panthers with 20 points, 17 rebounds, and three blocked shots. Pitt had no answer for the bigger and stronger Mountaineers. Pitt lost the rebounding battle 51-35 in total.

Pitt was led offensively by Trey McGowens as he posted 13 points and four rebounds. The sophomore guard found a rhythm in the second half and went on a personal 6-0 run at one point, but he was defended differently in the second half as he finished with just one point.

The story early on was the foul situation. Both Pitt and West Virginia were in the bonus early in the game and the teams combined for 48 fouls. West Virginia shot 14-of-19 from the free throw line, while Pitt went 19-of-31.

Pitt's Xavier Johnson continued with his early season struggles. He finished with 4 points, 5 assists, and 5 turnovers. West Virginia also did an admirable job of guarding sharpshooter Ryan Murphy, as he finished with 11 points. The key, though, was that Murphy was 0-1 from the 3-point line as he was unable to find space to get off a shot.

The loss drops Pitt to 2-2 on the season, a less than ideal follow-up to the season-opening win over Florida State for Jeff Capel's squad. A large number of West Virginia fans took over the Petersen Events Center and were boisterously cheering in the final minutes of the game.