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Young leads Pitt to another non-conference home victory

Nov 16, 2007 - 4:28 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Mississippi Valley State did not provide much of a threat to stop Pittsburgh's home dominance.

Sam Young scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half as the No. 19 Panthers extended their home winning streak against non-conference opponents to 24 games with a 78-45 victory over the Delta Devils on Thursday in the Hispanic College Fund Classic.

Reserve Gilbert Brown finished with 12 points and Tyrell Biggs added 10 for Pittsburgh, which has started 4-0 for the 10th straight season and has not lost a game in November since November 25, 2001 at South Florida.

"I felt this was a pretty strong performance the whole way through, especially on the defensive end," Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. "The goal when we entered into this tournament was to be better at the end of these four games than we were before them, and I think that happened."

The Panthers scored the first eight points of the game, took a 25-9 lead on a jumper by Ronald Ramon with 7:56 left and increased the bulge to 35-15 on two free throws by Ramon with 3:33 to go.

Pittsburgh took a 35-19 lead into intermission, holding Mississippi Valley State to 30 percent (8-of-27) shooting.

"Pitt played hard and physical," Mississippi Valley State coach James Green said. "They also switched a lot and we had some guys out there who did not understand how to react to the switching. Pitt is big, strong, and they played hard. They have always been good defensively."

Young scored two baskets in the first 90 seconds of the second half as Pittsburgh increased the lead to 41-19, and Bradley Wanamaker's 3-pointer with 7:49 remaining pushed the advantage to 63-32.

Young finished 6-of-9 from the floor and added 12 rebounds in just 23 minutes.

Stanford Speech scored 10 points for the Delta Devils (0-2), who shot just 26 percent (15-of-57) and were outrebounded, 50-30.