Pitt holds off Robert Morris upset bid

The Panthers' Aaron Gray was too much for the Colonials to handle.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pitt's outside shots weren't dropping, and Robert Morris began to sense it could beat the nation's No. 2 team. At least until the Panthers began feeding the ball to the one player on the court the Colonials couldn't defend.
Aaron Gray's size and scoring touch inside proved too much for smaller Robert Morris to handle and No. 2 Pittsburgh held off an upset bid by its city rival, overcoming a second-half deficit to rally for a 67-53 victory Wednesday night.
The 7-foot Gray, four inches taller than any Robert Morris starter, had 13 of his 21 points and 11 of his 15 rebounds in the second half. As a result, the Panthers (7-0) outscored the Colonials 26-11 down the stretch after trailing 42-41 on Derek Coleman's drive to the basket with 13 minutes remaining.
"We understand what it takes to win, and we were able to do that tonight," Gray said.
And what Pitt most often does to win is repeatedly get the ball to Gray, the Big East preseason player of the year.
Big 12-2 run at end
The Panthers answered Robert Morris' comeback try by going on a 12-2 run finished off by Gray's three-point play. Gray had seven points during the surge. Ronald Ramon also hit a 3-pointer -- one of only two Pitt made -- after Robert Morris (4-1) had closed to 47-44.
"We had no answer for Aaron Gray. He was the X factor," Robert Morris coach Mark Schmidt said.
"I thought we made it difficult for him at times but, at the end, they got the ball inside to him and that was the game."
Pitt helped keep the game close by missing 15 of its 17 3-point attempts.
"Coach [Jamie] Dixon did a great job of pulling us back together when we kind of stepped outside ourselves," Gray said. "We got back to playing Pittsburgh basketball, and that's when we took over the game. Coach said to slow things down a bit, take your time. He said we were getting great shots but we can get better shots, and when we started to do that things started coming together for us."
Now 26-0 against Colonials
Mike Cook added 11 points and Levon Kendall had 10 for Pitt, which improved to 26-0 against Robert Morris and 64-0 against Northeast Conference teams. The Panthers, ranked No. 2 for the seventh time in school history, are 7-0 for the fifth consecutive season.
"They're No. 2 for a reason, too," Schmidt said.
"I thought if we could hang in there until the final 10 minutes we had a chance, and we did. Pitt just overpowered us the last six or seven minutes."
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