In its first action of the 2024-25 season, the Pitt men's basketball team had to find itself against a Point Park team that showed early it wasn't going to be pushed around by its Division I neighbors.
The Pioneers kept it close through the first 20 minutes of the contest but the Panthers quickly became more deliberate and started to impose their will on the defensive end. Pitt ramped up its ball pressure and through the first 15 minutes of the second half limited Point Park to just 14 points and extended its lead to 29 points. That defensive pressure led to greater offensive efficiency and the Panthers cruised to a 93-62 exhibition win.
"I think we were nervous, I think we had some jitters, it was the first time with this group in front of people," Jeff Capel said. "One thing I know from being a former player is sometimes when you're excited like that, you get tired pretty quickly and I thought we looked a little tired early just because of the excitement about playing someone else."
Ishmael Leggett led all scorers with 24 points and was almost perfect from the field as he hit eight of his nine field goal attempts, made all three of his three-point attempts and was perfect from the free-throw line. Jaland Lowe was right behind him with 22 points and hit all eight of his free-throw attempts.
While the Panthers got contributions from across the board -- 10 of the 11 players who played scored -- Cam Corhen's second-half performance was a key piece of Pitt's second-half run. The Florida State transfer tallied 12 of his 14 points in the second half and grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double. He scored 12 of Pitt's first 16 points of the second half.
Corhen will be a big piece of Pitt's success this season as he provides the Panthers with a presence in the paint, but can also leak into the mid-range area and hit jump shots. But, on this night, Corhen needed a little encouragement.
"JC (Capel) looked at me in my eyes and said 'You need to make your presence felt in the second half.' So it was good to just come out there and get the jitters out. But, the second half, I got it going," he said.
While it wasn't a pretty victory, Capel was able to get an idea of what his team is made of in a game atmosphere.
The Panthers didn't necessarily show it at the beginning of the game as they didn't score their first bucket until the 17:35 mark of the first half and also started by going 5-of-14 from the field and just 1-of-3 from the three-point line. Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham were especially cold from deep as they combined to go 2-of-8 from deep in the first half. Corhen was also 1-of-5 around the rim.
While some of it was nerves and jitters of playing under the lights for the first time this season, Capel said it was the type of performance that won't happen consistently as it was foreign to what he's seen in practice throughout the summer and into the fall.
"We didn't shoot the ball as well tonight as we have been and I think as we will, in particularly from the three," Capel said. "Guillermo, Jorge missed shots that they've been making and we think they will make at a higher clip from there when they get them."
But the defensive performance was just as out of character for the Panthers as they allowed Point Park to get into a rhythm offensively. Capel said that helped the Pioneers build confidence and it translated into converting tough shots. However, when Pitt started to revert to its norm and pressure the ball and keep the Pioneers out of their offense and killed that rhythm.
One bright spot was Lowe and Leggett's performance. The guard duo started in the backcourt together and controlled the game. On top of his scoring output, Leggett grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists while Lowe was a key piece of Pitt's defensive pressure and tallied four steals. Together, they will be a big piece of Pitt's approach this season and they've already started to show that.
"I think our chemistry is great and we can build off of it," Leggett said. "We kinda just have a knack for each other. Sometimes he pushes it, sometimes I push it, we go hand in hand, so I just feel like the chemistry is there."
Realistically, this is just the beginning for Pitt. It was the first time multiple players -- Damian Dunn, Brandin Cummings, Papa Amadou Kante, Corhen and others -- took the floor as a unit for the first time. There is still chemistry being built in-game and that will come with time. But, their ability to increase the defensive effort, along with finding an offensive rhythm in the second half should be encouraging moving forward.
"Everything today for some of these guys, with the exception of Ish, Jaland, Zack (Austin) and Guillermo, it was new," Capel said. "Just everything. The shootaround, the timing of it, the pre-game meal, everything leading up to the game was different. Cam hasn't done it here. Damian hasn't done it here. Papa didn't play last year. Jorge did it, but he was out so he didn't play basketball for a while. So really, it's all of that to see how we're going to be playing against a different coverage."
