Duo of Young and Blair lead Pittsburgh past Seton Hall
Sam Young and DeJuan Blair helped lead the offense for Pittsburgh, as the Panthers defeated Seton Hall on Saturday 84-70 in Big East play, keeping the Pirates winless in conference play.
Young scored a game-high 28 points and the freshman Blair added 20 points and snared 14 rebounds in the win. Pittsburgh (14-2, 2-1) did not trail at all in the game, and they finally were able to pull away from the pesky Pirates after senior center Brian Liang injured his hip.
Liang injured his right hip early in the second half after a collision with Young. Young’s elbow caught Liang on the hip, forcing the center to head into the locker room. With Liang, the Pirates fell behind by 10, 45-35 after trailing 33-30 at halftime. Liang had 15 points in the first half, but once he returned, wasn’t the same player. In his absence, the Pirates simply could not find a way to get baskets without their leading scorer. Eugene Harvey led Seton Hall (10-6, 0-3) with 25 points and Jamar Nutter added 10 points in a team-high 36 minutes. The Pirates shot just 34.8 percent from the field; the 3-point line was highly unkind for Seton Hall, nailing just 5-of-23 attempts for 21 percent.
Pittsburgh shot 49 percent from the field and 55 percent from 3-point range. The backcourt tandem of Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin combined for 26 points and 14 of Pittsburgh’s 22 assists. The Panthers are 3-1 without injured point guard Levance Fields and 3-2 without Mike Cook.
Despite only nine scholarship players due to the injuries, Pittsburgh has emerged as one the premier teams in the conference, as they’ve suffered only two losses. The Panthers will put their 12-game home winning streak on the line when they host No.5 Georgetown in a much anticipated ‘Big Monday’ match-up.
For Seton Hall, they’ve arguably had the toughest start to their Big East schedule. They’ve lost to UConn, Marquette, and Pittsburgh. Both losses to Pitt and Marquette were on the road and both were ranked inside the Top 25. The Pirates will look for their first Big East win on Thursday when they host South Florida at 7:30 p.m.
Tags: Big East Basketball, DeJuan Blair, NCAA Men's basketball, Pittsburgh Panthers, Sam Young, Seton Hall Pirates