Femi Odukale scored 17 of his 28 points in the second half and Mouhamadou Gueye had 15 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four blocked shots for Pitt in its 64-55 victory over visiting Jacksonville in a nonconference game Tuesday afternoon.
Jamarius Burton added 12 points for Pitt (5-7), which is scheduled to resume the ACC portion of its season by hosting Notre Dame on Dec. 28. The Panthers held Jacksonville scoreless for 5 1/2 minutes in the second half.
Kevion Nolan led Jacksonville (7-4) with 22 points and shot 6-for-11 from 3-point range. No other Dolphin scored more than seven points.
Nolan’s 3-pointer 25 seconds into the second half gave the Dolphins their first lead of the game, 27-26, and he connected again from long range with 16:35 to go to put Jacksonville ahead 32-28.
But the Panthers soon clamped down on the Dolphins’ offense, after Nolan’s third 3-pointer of the half cut the Panthers’ lead to 36-35 with 13:09 to go.
Jacksonville went scoreless for the next 5:30 until Nolan drained yet another trey with 7:39 to go. In between those baskets, Pitt had scored 14 consecutive points to open a 50-35 lead before Nolan finally interrupted the run.
Odukale scored seven points and Gueye had five to key that surge by Pitt.
Jacksonville didn’t get closer than seven after that, at 62-55 on Isaiah Broady’s putback with 10 seconds left.
Jacksonville missed 14 of its first 19 shots from the field, yet trailed only 20-15 at that point because Pitt was its usually cold-shooting selves. The Panthers wound up hitting only 32.3 percent for the first half, which ended with Pitt ahead 26-24.
Bryce Workman’s basket cut the Dolphins’ deficit to 20-17, but Odukale answered with a 3-pointer from the left side. Burton’s trey later in the half put the Panthers ahead, 26-20. Nolan responded with a 3-pointer for Jacksonville to make it 26-23, and teammate Jordan Davis made one of two foul shots with 45 seconds left to close the scoring for the half.
–Field Level Media
