Jan. 2, 2002

Box Score

By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Pittsburgh, off to its best start in 13 years, outscored St. John's 23-2 over a 10-minute stretch keyed by Brandin Knight's outside shooting and went on to a surprisingly easy 77-54 victory Wednesday night.

Knight scored 24 points - 17 in a dominating first half - as the Panthers (13-1) had no more trouble in their Big East Conference opener than they did against a succession of no-name opponents.

Pitt is 13-1 for the first time since the Charles Smith-led team of 1987-88.

Knight had five 3-pointers in a first half dominated by the Panthers, who opened a 15-6 lead even before holding the cold-shooting Red Storm (9-3, 0-1) to two points over the final 9:56 of the half.

Pitt, beating St. John's for the first time in eight games since a 1995 Big East tournament victory, extended its lead from 20-16 to 41-18 at halftime.

The Panthers made it 43-18 on Toree Morris' basket to start the second half in their most one-sided victory in a 45-game series against St. John's that has been dominated by the Red Storm, who lead 31-14.

St. John's coach Mike Jarvis, disgusted as much with his team's play as the officiating, finally had enough and was ejected with 1:35 remaining after drawing consecutive technical fouls.

Jarvis previously was 3-0 against Pitt and 3-0 in Big East openers.

The Red Storm were seen as Pitt's first test at home - the Panthers are 9-0 there against decidedly weak opposition and have played on the road only once - but this one proved no contest from the start.

Knight had three 3-pointers during the opening flurry in which Pitt led 15-6 with less than seven minutes gone, and also started the 23-2 run with two more 3-pointers.

St. John's tried to make a game of it in the second half, scoring nine consecutive points, but that only closed it to 51-37. After that, Pitt coasted to its eighth consecutive victory since a Thanksgiving weekend tournament loss to South Florida.

Jaron Brown had 14 points and eight rebounds for Pitt, which shot 56.5 percent to 39 percent for St. John's. The Red Storm were 8-of-28 in the first half.

Marcus Hatten had 18 points for St. John's, which had won five straight and six of seven.