• Recap
• Bleachers

Pitt easily takes care of Penn

Nov 28, 2010 - 7:18 AM Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Ashton Gibbs led a balanced scoring attack with 12 points as No. 5 Pitt cruised to an 82-58 victory over Penn at Petersen Events Center.

J.J. Moore and Dante Taylor posted 11 points each for the Panthers (7-0), who will host intra-city rival Duquesne on Wednesday. Gilbert Brown added nine points and seven rebounds and Travon Woodall posted seven points and six assists.

"We played a lot of guys, they got a lot of different minutes, a lot of opportunities," Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. "I really liked how we sustained it for pretty much the entire 40 minutes."

Miles Cartwright notched a game-best 22 points but it wasn't nearly enough for the Quakers (2-3), who return home Tuesday to take on UMBC. Jack Eggleston had 16 points and Zack Rosen turned in 11 with eight assists in a losing cause.

The Panthers scored the first nine points of the contest, but the Quakers fought back within 17-13 with just over nine minutes left in the half when Cartwright connected from long distance then hit 1-of-2 from the line.

A three-pointer from Gibbs gave the home team a 21-15 edge, kicking off a 15-3 run ending on a Taylor three-point play that gave Pitt a 36-18 advantage at the break.

"We just couldn't finish out possessions, which is something we talk about all the time," Penn head coach Jerome Allen said. "We didn't close out and they finished on a [15-3] run. That was the tale of the story."

Taylor later sank a pair of free throws to cap a 16-1 run which saw the Panthers move ahead 58-29 with 12:03 to play.

Lamar Patterson's free throws put Pitt's lead over 30 at 67-36 with 7:57 remaining, and Penn was unable to shrink its deficit below 20 points for the remainder of the contest.

Game Notes

Penn has won seven of the 13 in the series, but this was the meeting first since the 1975-76 season...Pittsburgh committed just eight turnovers to 14 for Penn...The Panthers shot 58.6 percent in the second half and were 52.6 percent for the game, while the Quakers hit just 35 percent in the first half and finished 44.2 percent from the field.