Johnson suspended before Pitt victory
Pittsburgh junior forward Durand Johnson walked onto the Petersen Events Center floor in a blue sweatsuit rather than a white jersey Friday night after learning he was suspended for the entire 2014-15 season just hours before tip-off against Niagara.
While coach Jamie Dixon stressed his team’s emotional leader remains “a big part of our future,” Dixon’s concern is with the present.
“This is not as you drew it up in the offseason,” Dixon said. “We have to figure it out and make no excuses and change no goals.”
Considering how his team looked at times in an easy 78-45 victory, there’s really no need.
Jamel Artis scored a career-high 14 points to lead four players in double figures as the Panthers rolled to their 18th straight season-opening win. Josh Newkirk added 12 points and five assists for Pitt. Freshman forward Cameron Johnson added 11 and Chris Jones had 10 as Pitt built an early 28-point lead and cruised.
“We got off to a great start,” Dixon said. “The defense is coming along. I thought we did a good job defensively early and that was key.”
The Panthers shot 52 percent from the floor and had little trouble with the rebuilding Purple Eagles. Niagara, which has 13 underclassmen on its roster, missed its first eight shots and trailed by 14 points before scoring its first basket. Emile Blackman led the Purple Eagles with 16 points but Niagara was never in it.
“They are good,” coach Chris Casey said. “We’re ready for that in some ways and in a lot of ways not necessarily ready for it.”
Pitt remained unbeaten in openers under Dixon. Few were as easy as this one even with the Panthers playing without Durand Johnson, who figured to be a major piece of the puzzle this season after recovering from a torn ACL in his right knee suffered in January.
Instead, he watched at the end of the bench as his teammates vied for his job. Dixon substituted liberally while giving several new faces extended playing time in Johnson’s absence, including Cameron Johnson.
A late signee, the 6-7 guard/forward, whose father Gilbert Johnson played for the Panthers from 1988-90, looked at ease while making four of five shots from the floor.
Penn State 61, Morgan State 48: D.J. Newbill scored 17 points, freshman Shep Garner added 14 and Penn State defeated Morgan State 61-48 in the season-opener for both teams.
Geno Thorpe scored 11 for Penn State which sank 21 of 48 shots (43.8 percent). The Lions were 5 of 13 from 3-point range but four of them came in the second half to help them pull away from the Bears.
Morgan State was led by Cedric Blossom’s 10 points and Blake Bozeman’s 9.
The Bears shot just 18 of 58 from the field and were only 3 of 18 on their 3-point attempts.
Newbill also pulled down seven rebounds for Penn State. Brandon Taylor led the Lions with nine.
Garner came out firing to start the second half with his first 3-pointer for a nine-point Penn State lead.
West Virginia 64, Monmouth 54: Juwan Staten scored 20 points and Devin Williams added 15 as West Virginia knocked off upset-minded Monmouth 64-54 in the opening game of the season for both teams.
The Mountaineers used a 21-4 run in a little more than five, second-half minutes to polish off the Hawks. During the span, the visitors failed to score a basket against West Virginia’s pressure defense.
Deon Jones had 14 and Andrew Nicholas had 10 points for Monmouth.
Monmouth led 46-36 with 7:36 remaining, but the Hawks got in foul trouble and the Mountaineers took advantage of it. Three big men Brice Kofane, Zac Tillman and Chris Brady fouled out for Monmouth. Meanwhile, Williams made them pay.
The 6-9, 255-pound sophomore had only three field goals, but dropped in 9 of 14 free throws. He also pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds.