Ishmael Leggett scored 21 points on Saturday night and Pitt stayed undefeated in Atlantic Coast Conference play with an 83-68 win over visiting Stanford.
Leggett added six rebounds for the Panthers (12-2, 3-0 ACC), who canned 56.4 percent of their field-goal attempts. Jaland Lowe added 16 points, five assists and four steals and Guillermo Diaz Graham tallied 12 points as Pitt earned a 34-23 advantage on the boards.
Maxime Raynaud scored 21 points for the Cardinal (9-5, 1-2) but didn’t get enough help. Chisom Okpara came off the bench to add 14 points, but the rest of the Stanford starters outside of Raynaud combined for just 18. The Cardinal made just 35.3 percent of their shots overall, including 9 of 28 3-point attempts.
The key spurt for Pitt came late in the first half and spilled over into the first four minutes of the second half. Raynaud canned a 3-pointer with 5:11 left before the break for a 28-26 Stanford edge, but the Panthers went on a 12-2 run to close the opening half. Lowe hit a triple with four seconds remaining in the first period for a 38-30 advantage at the break.
Pitt wasted little time blowing the game open in the second half. An 11-2 burst, capped by a 3-pointer by Diaz Graham, upped the hosts’ advantage to 49-32 with 16:07 left. The Panthers pushed the margin as high as 21 on two occasions in the last five-plus minutes.
Zack Austin netted 11 points for Pitt, which travels to No. 4 Duke on Tuesday for a showdown in the ACC. The Panthers have won five consecutive games, scoring at least 83 points in four straight.
The Cardinal were able to hang with Pitt for most of the first half behind Raynaud. He scored nine of his team’s first 11 points, and Stanford led 18-9 after Jaylen Blakes drilled a long 3-pointer at the 12:16 mark of the first half.
Stanford still led by nine with 8:02 remaining before the Panthers took control over the first half’s remainder.
–Field Level Media
