Three decades-plus of irregular meetings has obscured the historical legacy of Pitt vs. Penn State on the hardwood.
The two men’s basketball programs, which have played only 10 times since 1992, own a history that dates to 1906, featuring 148 total matchups.
Sunday at the GIANT Center in Hershey was meeting No. 149 between the squads, with Penn State winning last time around in the 2017 Legends Classic in Brooklyn, N.Y.
In their final non-conference game of the season, Pitt (7-6) jumped on Penn State early and throttled the Nittany Lions, 80-46, behind a career-high 28 points from Roman Siulepa.
“I don’t know if it was part of the plan that Roman turned into Klay Thompson but we’ll take it,” Panthers associate head coach Milan Brown joked postgame on 93.7 FM. “It was great to see him make some shots. Pretty sure that shocked (Penn State). But it was shots that he made in rhythm.
“For all of us that played, you have those days when you get going. You get going, (teammates) keep feeding it to you and the basket is like a trash can.”
In front of a crowd of 8,191, many of them Pitt faithful, Siulepa was 10 of 16 from the floor and 5 of 6 from deep. He was complemented by Omari Witherspoon (15 points) and Damarco Minor (11).
As a team, Pitt shot 50% (30 of 60) from the floor and 50% (12 of 24) from long range, narrowing the all-time series with Penn State to 76-73, still in favor of the Nittany Lions (8-4).
Freddie Dilione V led Penn State with 23 points.
The Panthers got off to a hot start, initiated by arguably their hottest player over the last month, Barry Dunning Jr., who drained a 3-pointer on his team’s first possession.
Minor followed with a 3-pointer, as did the usually closer-range-shooting Siulepa, as Pitt took a 9-3 lead just under three minutes into the game.
At the 15-minute mark, Siulepa drained another 3-pointer – the Panthers’ fourth in six tries to begin the game – as Pitt was up 12-6 at the opening media timeout.
Witherspoon next joined the 3-point party, hitting a basket from the corner that gave Pitt a 15-6 advantage at the 13:57 mark.
At the under-12 media timeout, Pitt was ahead, 21-9, having hit 5 of 8 3-point attempts to start, with the Nittany Lions beginning the game just 3 of 13 from the field.
Following a tip-in by Cam Corhen, Nojus Indrusaitis deposited a jumper with 8:43 remaining, prompting a timeout by Nittany Lions coach Mike Rhoades, with Pitt in front 27-13.
With about three-and-a-half minutes left in the half, Minor stretched Pitt’s lead to 18, stealing the ball from Dilione before taking it the other way for an uncontested dunk.
For the remainder of the first half, Pitt didn’t let up. Penn State continued to have trouble putting the ball in the basket, while the Panthers added a shot from Witherspoon and a 3-pointer from Minor to take a 40-20 halftime lead.
“If we can continue to try to build on what we’ve done on the defensive end, which looks great for us at this moment, it just helps fuel us on the offensive end,” Brown said.
Coming out of the locker room, Penn State didn’t showcase energy or shot-making much different from the first half.
At the opening media timeout, with 16:07 to play, Pitt remained in the lead 41-24.
However, the Nittany Lions found some momentum soon after, coming within 13 on an 8-0 run as Pitt’s offense largely dried up.
With 14:22 to go, the Panthers’ lead was trimmed to 41-28.
When Siulepa hit a free throw at the 14:09 mark, making it a 42-28 game, it went for Pitt’s first point in 5 minutes, 36 seconds.
At the final under-12 media timeout, a Brandin Cummings stepback jumper put Pitt in front 44-30 and went for the Panthers’ first field goal of the second half.
Pitt increased its lead to 17 at the 10:17 mark, as Minor drained a 3-pointer to make it 49-32. Moments later, an emphatic dunk by Siulepa had the Panthers ahead 51-32.
“We almost started the second half as if to say, ‘Well, we’re up 20, let’s just walk it all the way through the last 20 minutes,’” Brown said. “You have to keep playing. When we turned it back up, got aggressive and back on our toes, it was a beautiful thing to see.”
With 8:40 to go, Siulepa hit another 3-pointer, as Pitt took its largest lead of the day, 56-34.
Siulepa’s fourth 3-pointer of the day, which tied his career-high in total points (20), sent Pitt into the under-8 media timeout with a 59-37 advantage.
From there, the Panthers stayed comfortably in front after their sluggish offensive start to the final half.
Two Siulepa layups gave him 24 points on the day, with Pitt taking a 67-39 lead with under five minutes left.
Cummings put the Panthers up by 31, 72-41, with 2:46 remaining.
Fittingly, the last basket of the game was a 3-pointer from Siulepa with 31 seconds to go.
“We’re really excited for the kids and it was great to see all the fans we had coming out,” Brown said. “It was great that we were able to turn a neutral-site road game into a Pitt home game. That’s always good, especially against those guys up the road.”