Of all the things Oral Roberts coach Scott Sutton thought he knew about his team, toughness was near the top of the list.
But Pittsburgh changed that for a day. The Panthers roughed up ORU and won going away, 82-63, on Thursday in an NCAA Tournament first round game at the Pepsi Center. The fourth-seeded Panthers face fifth-seeded Michigan State on Saturday.
“We’ve played some great teams the last two years in this tournament,” ORU’s Sutton said. “I think this is the best team we’ve played.”
Pittsburgh guard Levance Fields sure looked like the best guard they’ve faced. Fields scored a season-high 23 points, 16 in the first half, and added seven assists, four rebounds and a steal.
Much of the build-up to the game for Pittsburgh hovered around the physical and mental toughness of the team. Physically, it was as advertised. ORU senior forward Moses Ehambe sat with an ice-pack on his left shoulder during the post-game press conference.
“They were really tough, man,” Ehambe said.
Still, equal attention should have been paid to Pittsburgh’s shooting. And its defense.
The Panthers (27-9) shook off a 1-of-6 start and an early 13-10 deficit to take control. An 18-0 run effectively put the Golden Eagles away.
“That run was real big,” said Pitt forward Keith Benjamin, one of four Panthers who scored in double figures.
The beauty in the victory for Pittsburgh is it got the win without a big game from its leading scorer, Sam Young. Young opened the scoring for the Panthers with a 3-pointer, but only scored five first half points and finished with a modest 14. Pittsburgh hit nine 3-pointers, six in the first half.
“We shot the ball well and did a good job of preventing them from getting easy baskets,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.
Defensively, Pittsburgh allowed next-to-nothing inside of the 3-point arc, particularly in the first half. Oral Roberts made just 7-of-28 shots in the half, five from 3-point range. The Golden Eagles were 2-of-17 on two-point shots. Leading scorer Moses Ehambe was bottled up most of day, finishing with 14 points.
“I think they underestimated us, to be honest, based on the comments before the game and after the first could shot they made they got confident,” Young said. “At the beginning of the game they got really confident but as soon as we started playing like ourselves we blew the game open.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
