March 13, 2008

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BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND NOTES

Pitt vs. Cincinnati, Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y.

*Pitt (23-9) advances to face No. 2 seed Louisville in Thursday's quarterfinal round at 7p.m. ET. Pitt dropped a 75-73 decision to the Cardinals on Feb. 24 in Pittsburgh, the only meeting between the teams this season. Pitt is attempting to make an appearance in its seventh Big East Championship Final in the last eight years.

*Pitt has now won four of its last five games.

*Pitt improves to 6-7 in Big East Championship First Round games. It enters Wednesday's Quarterfinal Round game vs. Louisville with a 9-9 all-time Quarterfinal record.

*Madison Square Garden is Pitt's home away from home as the Panthers are 20-8 at MSG since 2000-01. Pitt improves to 3-0 at Madison Square Garden this year and has won five of its last six in the "World's Most Famous Arena."

*Pitt improves to 16-6 in Big East Championship games at Madison Square Garden since 2000-01.

*Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon improved to 8-4 in Big East Championship Games.

*Sam Young (21 points) finished with his 15^th 20-plus point scoring night and tied a career-high with four blocked shots. He also blocked four shots vs. Villanova on Jan. 30. Young has now reached double figure scoring in 31 of Pitt's 32 games this year and in 39 of his 43 last games played. Young has now led Pitt in scoring in 22 of 32 games.

*Pitt's backcourt tandem of Levance Fields and Ronald Ramon combined for 10 assists and just one turnover.

*With his 15 points, Keith Benjamin reached double figure scoring for the 16^th time this year and 23^rd time in his career.

*Levance Fields reached double figure scoring for the fourth game in a row. It also marked his 41^st career double figure scoring game.

*With his 12 points, Ronald Ramon registered his 49^th career double figure scoring game and 12^th time this year. He also hit 4-7 3-pointers. Ramon tied a career-high with seven rebounds.

*Pitt's guards combined for 17 of 36 of Pitt's rebounds.

*Pitt met Cincinnati for the first time in Big East Championship play and defeated the Bearcats for the second time this year. It improved to 4-1 vs. Cincinnati since it joined the Big East Conference in 2005-06. It is now 7-5 all-time vs. Cincinnati.

*Cincinnati's Deona Vaughn became the third player this season to score over 30 points vs. Pitt. West Virginia's Joe Alexander (32 points at WVU, 3/3/08) and Dayton's Brian Roberts (31 points at Dayton, 12/29/07) were the other two players.