No. 20 Pittsburgh dismisses Seton Hall

Sam Young’s 28 points led the Panthers to the Big East win.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh is becoming an every-season fixture in the Top 25 and the Big East tournament championship game, yet doesn’t turn out NBA players like some of the elite-level programs do.

Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez is certain that is about to change.

Sam Young and DeJuan Blair carried Pittsburgh’s offense until its backcourt finally got going early in the second half, and the 20th-ranked Panthers kept Seton Hall winless in the Big East with an 84-70 victory on Saturday.

Young scored 28 points and Blair, a 6-foot-7 freshman playing in his first conference home game, had 20 points and 14 rebounds.

The Panthers (14-2, 2-1) never trailed but didn’t pull away until their guards started scoring and Seton Hall’s Brian Laing injured his right hip, allowing Pitt to take control while he was out.

“They are still one of the elite teams in the Big East — they [Blair and Young] look like NBA big guys,” Gonzalez said. “We had no answers for those guys. We just got outclassed inside.”

Laing had 15 points in the first half as the Pirates (10-6, 0-3) trailed 33-30. He went to the locker room after Young’s elbow caught his hip early in the second half. Laing sat out only a couple of minutes, but Pitt quickly took advantage of his absence to open its first double-digit lead at 45-35 on Young’s 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Laing, averaging a team-high 19.1 points, wasn’t the same after coming back, failing to score again — he ended with 17 — while having several shots blocked or altered.

“It was a huge difference,” Gonzalez said. “We have to manufacture baskets without Brian Laing on the floor.”

Eugene Harvey scored 25 points but the Pirates, with only one starter taller than 6-foot-5, shot only 34.6 percent (24-of-69) while losing their 10th consecutive Big East road game. Their last conference road win was an upset of then-No. 8 Pitt on March 3, 2006.

Pitt knows what losing a key player can mean.

The Panthers are still adjusting without two starters, point guard Levance Fields (broken foot) and small forward Mike Cook (knee). The Panthers are 3-1 without Fields, who could return late in the season, and 3-2 without Cook, whose college career is over.

“I didn’t set any standards or expectations for the team, so we don’t feel limited due to our injuries,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We thought our bench players were ready to play more minutes. ... We’ve been calling Sam’s and DeJuan’s numbers more.”

Certainly a lot more than the Pirates would have liked.

Young’s 28 points were a career high, topping the 24 he had against North Carolina A&T on Nov. 10. Young, a 6-6 junior who has increased his scoring average from 7.2 a season ago to 18.5, made all four of his 3-point attempts and is 20-of-38 on 3s this season.