March 15, 2008
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BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINAL NOTES
Pitt vs. Marquette, Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y., March 14, 2008
*Pitt (25-9) advances to face Georgetown in Saturday's Big East Championship Game. Tipoff is at 9 p.m. Pitt defeated Georgetown 69-60 at the Petersen Events Center on January 14.
*Pitt will make an appearance in its seventh Big East Championship Final in the last eight years. Jamie Dixon has guided Pitt to his fourth Big East Championship Final in his first five seasons as head coach at Pitt.
*Pitt has now won six of its last seven games on the year.
*Madison Square Garden is Pitt's home away from home as the Panthers are 22-8 at MSG since 2000-01. Pitt improves to 5-0 at Madison Square Garden this year and has won seven of its last eight in the "World's Most Famous Arena."
*Pitt improves to 18-6 in Big East Championship games at Madison Square Garden since 2000-01.
*Pitt improves to 7-3 in Big East Championship Semifinal games. Pitt is 1-5 in Big East Championship Finals.
*For the second year, Pitt eliminated Marquette from the Big East Championship. It also defeated Marquette 89-79 on March 8, 2007. Pitt eliminated Louisville from Big East Championship contention for the third consecutive season. It defeated Louisville 65-59 in last year's Quarterfinal matchup and defeated the Cardinals 61-56 in the First Round in 2006.
*Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon improved to 10-4 in Big East Championship Games.
*With his 22 points, Sam Young finished with his 17th career 20-plus point scoring game. Young has now reached double figure scoring in 33 of Pitt's 34 games this year and in 41 of his last 45 games played. Young has now led Pitt in scoring in 24 of 34 games. Yesterday, Young (21 points/12 rebounds) registered his sixth career and fourth double-double this season. For the Big East Tournament, Young is averaging 21.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He is shooting 49.0 percent (25-51) in the three games.
*Young moved into fourth place on Pitt's Big East Tournament career scoring list. He now has 126 career points and is ranked behind Donatas Zavackas (138 from 2000-03), Brandin Knight (136 from 2000-03) and Carl Krauser (134 from 2003-06). Young also ranks fifth on the rebounding list with 58 career rebounds.
*Levance Fields reached double figure scoring for the sixth game in a row. It also marked his 43rd career double figure scoring game. In Big East Tournament action, Fields is averaging 11.7 points, 5.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game.
*With his 14 points, Ronald Ramon registered his 51st career double figure scoring game and 14th time this year. In Big East Tournament action, Ramon is averaging 13.0 points and 5.3 assists per game. He is shooting 50 percent (9-18) from 3-point range.
*Pitt's 25 victories rank tied for fifth among the all-time winningest seasons at Pitt. The school record is 31 set in 2003-04, Jamie Dixon's first year at Pitt. Dixon has guided five of Pitt's 15 winningest seasons.
*Pitt's senior class of Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook, Ronald Ramon and Maurice Polen improved to 99-34 all-time. The class needs just one more victory to become just the fifth senior class in school history to win 100 or more games.
*Pitt improved to 3-2 vs. ranked teams on the season.
*Pitt improved to 5-6 all-time vs. Marquette.
*Pitt held Marquette to 61 points on the evening. On the year, Pitt has now limited 24 of its 34 opponents to 70 points or less. In Pitt's three Big East Championship games, Pitt has held its opponents to 64.7 points per game, 35.8 percent (67-187) field goal shooting and 29.9 percent (20-67) 3-point shooting. In Pitt's previous seven games, five opponents shot 45.0 percent or better from the floor and five scored over 70 points per game.
