Dec 29, 2018 4 min read

The first half of 2018 was one to forget for Pittsburgh basketball. The Panthers went 0-18 in conference play to finish the season with just eight wins, which led to the firing of head coach Kevin Stallings.

The second half showed a ton of promise, though, as new head coach Jeff Capel earned win number 10 to close out the calendar year with Saturday’s 68-54 victory over Colgate.

“It’s time to flush 2018,” Capel said after the win. “It’s over. . 2018 provided all of us with some really good things but some hard things, some adverse things and some difficult things, but they’re all things, I think, that helped make us stronger.”

Now, Pitt will head into ACC play and attempt to snap an 18-game conference losing streak. The final tuneup against the Raiders suggested that they’re capable.

Five Pitt players cracked double figures offensively. Freshman guard Trey McGowens led the way with 16 points, with Jared Wilson-Frame (15), Au’Diese Toney (14), Terrell Brown (10) and Xavier Johnson (11) joining him in double figures.

Colgate (8-5) got out to a strong start, and led by a point with nearly seven minutes gone by in the first half. A 9-0 Pitt run over the next three minutes, sparked by seven points from Wilson-Frame, ended any hopes of a Raiders upset. Pitt went into the half with a nine-point lead and extended it in the second period.

“It was the energy on defense,” Wilson-Frame said. “I think we just needed to have a little bit more energy and focus up and get the job done.”

Pitt held the raiders to a season-low 30-percent shooting. Junior guard Will Rayman led Colgate with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half.

Rapolas Ivanauskas, Colgate’s second-leading scorer, was held to just five points. He came into the game averaging a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds per game.

“I think their physicality didn’t let him get the ball close to the basket,” Colgate coach Matt Langel said. “He missed a couple early around the basket that if he’s able to get those to go down, maybe it changes what his game could be. He didn’t get the shots we need him to get.”

Penn State 74, UMBC 52: Every time Rasir Bolton gets the ball in his hands, a familiar voice echoes in his head.

“It’s my Pops,” Bolton said. “Since I was seven, he would just tell me, ‘Shooting is like breathing. Breath in, breath out, bring the ball up, breath in, shoot it, breath out.'”

When he sticks to that, Bolton can make it look easy. The Penn State freshman scored 10 of his 18 points in the first half to help the Nittany Lions beat UMBC 74-52.

Lamar Stevens added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Nittany Lions (7-6) who finished their non-conference slate 7-4. That stretch included a 2-2 mark against Virginia Tech, Alabama, North Carolina State and Duquesne, teams that are 40-8 combined thus far.

“That really put us through a lot of tests,” Penn State coach Pat Chambers said. “That’s why we’ll be mentally and physically ready to head to Michigan and play in the Big Ten.”

The Nittany Lions were ready to play on Saturday, especially after what Chambers called a much needed Christmas break after a loss to Alabama in which Penn State coughed up a 23-9 first-half lead.

“That sits with you,” Chambers said. “They came back and they worked and we got better and there was some physicality and there was some chippiness.”

Penn State carried that edge into Saturday’s game and led comfortably for the entire second half after nine lead changes over the first 12:27. The Nittany Lions took the lead for good midway through the first with a 20-6 run sparked by 3-pointers from Bolton and Stevens. Myles Dread hit another from about five feet outside the arc and the Nittany Lions scored their next nine unanswered to take a 40-27 lead into halftime.

K.J. Jackson led UMBC (7-7) with 16 points.

“Their physicality was the biggest problem on defense for us,” UMBC coach Ryan Odom said. “They got us into some one-on-one situations where they quite honestly did a really good job of staying between us and the basket and we couldn’t really get in there.”