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Freshman DeJuan Blair out-muscled taller Georgetown for 15 points and nine rebounds. The Panthers (15-2, 3-1 in Big East), their season seemingly in peril when starters Levance Fields and Mike Cook were hurt a game apart in late December, are 4-1 with Ramon at point guard in place of Fields and have stretched their home court winning streak to 13 games.
Jonathan Wallace had 14 points for Georgetown (13-2, 3-1), which had won five straight overall and had beaten Pitt four of five times.
Benjamin became a starter when Cook was hurt but is averaging 16.6 points while in the lineup, and his latest big game enabled Pitt to withstand leading scorer Sam Young's first game below double figures this season. Young, averaging 18.4, was held to nine points.
Young made his limited scoring count, hitting two key baskets as Pitt began the second half with a 15-4 run to take a 42-30 lead. Ramon and Benjamin hit 3-pointers on successive possessions.
The Hoyas made one more run by scoring eight consecutive points to get within 47-44 as Patrick Ewing Jr. dunked off Jeremiah Rivers' miss and drove for a layup on consecutive possessions. But Blair's three-point play with 8:31 left pushed Pitt's lead back to six, and Benjamin drove the lane to score the next time down and make it 52-44.
The Hoyas couldn't make a late run, partly because they were only 3-of-20 on 3-pointers.
Georgetown came into the game as the best-shooting Division I team in the country at 51.6 percent, but were held to a 44.2 percent (23-of-52).
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The Panthers, 4-1 against top five teams at home with coach Jamie Dixon on their staff as either an assistant or head coach, got off to the fast start they wanted to get the sellout crowd of 12,508 into the game, taking an 8-2 lead on Ramon's 3-pointer with barely three minutes gone.
The Panthers were at a substantial height disadvantage, with 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert 7 inches taller than Blair and 6-8 DaJuan Summers also taller than any Pitt starter. The Hoyas had the experience edge, too, with four starters back to Pitt's none from the team that beat the Panthers 65-42 in the Big East championship game 10 months ago.
But Pitt never gave up the lead, even though Wallace's 3-point heave from slightly inside the midcourt line a millisecond before halftime got the Hoyas as close as they ever got at 27-26. The Hoyas, coming off a 72-69 win Saturday over Connecticut, never led against Pitt.
The surprise was Pitt -- down to nine scholarship players because of injuries
-- grabbed and held the lead without much of a first-half contribution from Young, who was coming off a career-high 28 points against Seton Hall on Saturday. He didn't get his first basket until there was 1:12 left in the first half, making it 25-21.
Among those in the crowd were Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Terrelle Pryor, the 6-foot-6 quarterback from nearby Jeannette (Pa.) High who is considered the top unsigned major college football recruit. Fans chanted "We Want Pryor," and one fan held up a sign "Marino, Ditka, Dorsett ... Pryor."
[Associated Press; By ALAN ROBINSON]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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